Planting seeds

This will be my last post regarding our garden. Unfortunately, little furry critters have decided that a lot of what we planted is a great midnight snack. Also, it seems I may have taken on a bit much thinking I would be able to spend hours outside weeding a garden with 5 kiddos running around.

I love that God allowed such a beautiful thing to take root even though my "original plan" did not pan out as I had envisioned. My Savior is so gracious and gentle in the way he teaches me the importance of things like planting seeds of kindness even when it seems so challenging to do so. You never know when beautiful flowers may bloom because of a seed you have planted.

I may try a bit of container gardening next year in order to avoid so much upkeep.

Love,
Amy

Garden ventures

This is our third year of planting a garden, so we are still in the experimenting phase each Spring. We do one thing and realize it would have been a lot easier to do it another way. As long as we make a bit of progress each year I can deal with all of the mistakes and failures.

So, I planted quite a few seeds, including tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, sunflowers, and carrots. After about 4-5 weeks of watering and nothing popping up but the green beans and sunflowers, I gave in and went and bought some plants. Now, 3-4 weeks after planting the plants, my seedlings are sprouting up. UGH! Live and learn.

The kids are thoroughly enjoying the whole experience...seeing the first baby tomato pop up, identifying whether it is a weed or plant, and of course arguing about who get to water each morning. So, even if no plant grows, the true harvet comes in the lessons about patience, nurturing, and consistency seem so much more pleasant being taught around a garden. Please enjoy the photos.

Love,
Amy

Hand tilled earth

Dante has decided that he wants our family to buy a farm so that he can live out his dream of being a farmer/cowboy. We decided that it might be a good idea to have him take on the "farm task" of hand tilling our backyard garden to give him a small taste of the reality of farm life. What a lot of hard work. It only took him about 2 weeks, and he did a FANTASTIC job. I had to include this photo of him celebrating the completion of his last row tilled. Nothing like that feeling of a job well done at the end of a long day.

Love,
Amy

Smoking and His Bears

We took a break last summer from gardening due to a tiny baby and a busy daddy. Well, I guess a pregnant momma and a busy daddy might make it easier??? Anyhoo, the boys spent a good amount of time this fall raking all of the leaves into the garden for some great fertilizer and yesterday they burned them all to be able to mix them in with the dirt. By the time they were finished, you couldn't see out of the windows. I look forward to trying some new veggies this year and making some first attempts at canning.
I included some pictures of Smoky and his bears from yesterday.
Love,
Amy

Labels: The Garden