Our garden

For the second year in a row, we've used our dog run for our garden area. We've never used it as a dog run and so it was just wasted space. The good thing about this is that it's fenced and it's surrounded with concrete, which helps to keep certain bugs out. Last year, we gardened the front half. This year, Jeremy wanted to give the boys a dirt area to play in, so we let them have the front area (about 1/4 of the total area) and then we tilled the rest up. We found that the back area really has better soil.

Here's the boys dirt area:



And the garden area:



Here's a view from our upstairs window:



We moved a wood pile to block off the boys play area from the rest of the garden. We're hoping that will keep the tomato plants from getting squashed.

So, it's a pretty big area. I have to admit, gardening is growing on me (pun intended). I don't love it yet, but I think I like it a little more every year. We get a little better at it each year. We learn more. And the more success we have, the braver we get in trying new things and the more we enjoy it. THere's also something very theraputic about digging your hands into dirt and growing something.

This year, we planted 16 tomato plants, 28 potato seeds and about 50 onions. We also planted nine rows of carrots (!!), two hills of pumpkins and a row of cucumbers. Still to be planted is one green pepper plant and a jalapeno pepper plant. It needs to be a little warmer before I put those out. I'm also thinking of getting some strawberry starts.

It sounds like a lot, but I'm not sure how much of it will actually live. We're not very good at this yet, but we're trying. And I figure if we get more than we can eat and/ or can, I can always give it away to our neighbors, right?