Our garden baby

At last we have a workable garden that seems to be exactly what we can handle this summer. We still need to add a few pepper plants, but other than that, all veggies/flowers are in place. We have both 4x4 beds fenced off to keep out the rabbits. The cucumbers look great so far. We have fenced in the entire garden area with fishing line to keep the deer from eating the tomatoes, which are well on their way to producing some yummy fruit. There is also a small digging section for those who just cannot resist the urge to DIG. God willing, I would love to be able to can some jars of tomatoes to use for homemade spaghetti sauce. I added a horizontal tomato trellis that covers the entire bed and provides support for all of the tomatoes and cucumbers as a group. We would also like to cover the area that we are not gardening vegetables in with old pieces of area rug to inhibit weed growth. Elijah has also requested that we plant a butterfly bush. We will see what we can accomplish before our actual sweet pea baby is born. Although we have spent more money than we ever planned to, this years gardening adventure has provided us with some great knowledge as to easier, more efficient gardening with lots of little ones.
Love,
A mama who would love to grow a green thumb

Little green helpers

My kids are totally digging (not literally) the new raised bed set up of our garden. We have 2- 4x4 raised beds and a row of sunflowers. The rest of the area is theirs to dig in. They are helping by adding worms, watering the plants, and just keeping me company twice a day as I water. Isabella is my morning helper. She grabs her little pink camping chair at 7am and will sit there for a good 10 minutes while I mosey around the garden. She has been told each morning for the past week that there are tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans planted that we will hopefully be able to enjoy within the next month. I wish that we would have experimented with the raised beds before spending so much time and $ fiddling around with the other garden. I hope to be able to continue to learn and get better at raised bed, square foot gardening as time passes. We plan on planting a cold bed to include at least some yummy lettuce and spinach.
Elijah really enjoys actually planting things right into the dirt. This weekend, he planted a pot of marigolds in a hanging basket to aid in repelling some of the mosquitoes.

Raised bed

We keep switching tracks, but we WILL get it eventually. There is something not working with our current gardening stragedy. We are going to try a few raised beds so that we can moderate the soil a little easier and cheaper. Dante and I decided to give one a try on our own to show Rich that we can do something when he is not around. He has so much responsibility already, so it was a nice opportunity to produce something useful when he was at work. Dante and I were able to construct a 4 x 4 raised bed in about an hour, not including the 3 hours it took to recharge the drill. Hopefully we will find the time next weekend to transplant the tomatoes. We should be able to successfully grown 16 plants in that one bed. HHMMM....we shall see.

Moving Right Along

This weekend, Rich added one more layer of manure and a bit of straw. He then placed layers and layers of cardboard covering the entire garden. After soaking the cardboard, he cut holes in the cardboard and planted a few tomato plants, cucumbers, and some lettuce. This method will allow us to hopefully get away with little to no weeding and watering. Supposedly, the cardboard maintains a huge amount of moisture which is sufficient to keep the plants happy and healthy. I will keep you updated. I think Rich plans on added a few additional plants, but not exactly sure what.

Garden start

Rich got the garden tilled today. He added bags of humus, manure, and lime. We have a few baby tomato plants started inside, but I am not sure how they are going to work. I planted them late and there really has not been super sunny days around here recently. We do have heirloom seeds of tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans, and also a packet of organic lettuce. We are going to try a new method of hassle free gardening. I am interested to see how everything looks late August when we have a 2 month old and Rich is headed back to work.

Small plans

I finally pinned Rich down to what he thought would work best for a semi garden this summer. We are going to plant 3 raised salad beds. One with tomatoes, one with cucumbers, and one with lettuce. I am planning on planted some sunflowers again and probably some marigolds.
Due to indoor space limitations, we plan on purchasing the tomato and cucumber plants from a local produce stand. The boys are trying to talk us into a mini garden that they can do their own thing with. Rich is still debating that one.
So, as soon as the weather decides to warm up, we will get moving outside.

Warm weather fuzzies

Looking forward to stealing some wonderful ideas from some wonderful people and at least planting something small this summer.
Rich has plans NOT to work this summer (woohoo) so that he can focus all of his attention on US and his last 2 classes. He really enjoyed the garden the first summer we did plant, so I am hoping that he will want to at least tend to something. Even if we just have a few tomato and cucumber plants. It is always so nice to have your own fresh veggies to add to your dinner salads. The kids want to plant some potatoes in tires on the side of the house. I told them that was doable.
I will keep you updated on our progress.
Love,