Gardening 101

I thought for this summer and for a good home project and for hopefully for a long time, we would start our first garden. I grew up having gardens, but mainly weeding them or harvesting them. So that being said, I have never started one and I took alot of advice from family and friends and began one.

We first had to prep the dirt and make sure it was level.....Kolbie was so excited she started planting right away. Well she was really planting a weed, which is not exactly what we wanted, but her little "plummer butt" was too cute to make her stop. She was so devoted the the task....all the other neighborhood kids were playing hard in the backyard, and she kept to planting.

We got some zinneas and pansies for in the front. They looked gorgeous, but the zinneas had a hard time surviving because of the cold weather that came in for the following few weeks.

I really didn't care what the kids did as long as no one got hurt. So after 10 neighbor kids asked to come into the yard, we had quite the playtime in the back while I was laying the weed block in the dirt.

After about an hour and a half the weed block was down and then came to moving in the raised beds that Sahaan had built for me the night before.

Through means of my own LOL, I was able to maneuver the beds in and lay the stepping stones that we had extra of laying around the yard. Then came the mulch and mini fence to keep the dogs out. The mini fence was this genius idea to keep out the dogs. I set the whole thing up and while admiring the job well done, Dakota walked right through the wires and to the otherside of the garden. So yes, we still have to keep an eye out for her because she is still so little. Abbie on the other hand couldn't fit through if she wanted.

We planted the strawberries first and got them into the planter boxes and a cynder block. I thought it would work well and be a good support structure and so far it has worked.

We then had to start our seedlings. Kai had been learning about the growth process and seedlings in school, so this was a cool project for him. We started purple bean plants, radishes, onions, green onions, garlic chives, cilantro, cabbage and spinach.

Our first sprouts were the radishes. They came up good and were able to go into the garden like 1 1/2 later.

To match the otherside of the patio, we decided to weed block and mulch the side with the dog house. Now it is clean and organized with the stepping stones in place and the mulch down.

I guess this was the first of the planting. We started planter boxes with flowers, but quickly had to fence them in, as Abbie would just eat all the blooms of each plant. Now they are beautiful and unharmed.

We also started 2 cucumber plants, bell pepper plants, 3 tomato plants, blueberry plant, carrots and a sunflower. They are all growing wonderfully and I can't wait for the warmer weather to see the veggies grow to full potential. Eating veggies and fruit from the garden will be so rewarding I think for all the hard work put in to setting it up.

This is the garden June 7th, 2010. Can't wait to see the outcome.