Veggie Gardens

We've been talking for YEARS about doing a veggie garden, but for one reason or another, it always ends up getting put off until "next year." Year after year...

This year, we were determined to actually get a garden in, but every weekend kept being RAINY, and we have had t-ball both Saturdays and Sundays, and it was really getting hard to find the opportunity. On June 4th, we woke up to gorgeous SUN, and the weather was predicted to be HOT (Hot, at least, compared to what we've HAD recently), and Jared's t-ball game wasn't until 3:45pm. Our opportunity had finally come along; a bit late in the season, but better than NEVER!

We decided it would probably be easier and less time-consuming to build each kid a 4ft X 4ft garden box, versus digging up a large area of the yard to do a more traditional garden. Dan headed out early in the morning to buy wood, and he and the boys got to work building the boxes:




Then we started getting "fancy" (digging up the grass in that area so the boxes could be more level, and so we could surround them with beauty bark so they'd look nicer).


Emily found tons of worms as Dan was pulling up the grass


While Dan and Emily and Connor were on a run to get some good dirt to fill the boxes with, Jared and I took the measuring tape and a level and made sure the boxes were evenly spaced and sitting level so they'd look nice (If we're going to do this gardening thing, we're going to do it RIGHT!) (I'm pretty sure this picture was taken BEFORE we'd finished leveling Em's box on the far right)


Just as we were getting done, Dan showed up with a truck full of dirt and got to work filling the boxes




The next morning, Gram came over and helped plant the seeds






When all was said and done (many HOURS of work and a lot more money than we'd originally planned!), each kid had their own garden box, their choice of veggies planted (beans, lettuce, and a pumpkin for Jared; raddishes, carrots, and a pumpkin for Connor; cucumber, butternut squash, and a pumpkin for Emily), laminated signs marking the seed spots, and laminated garden signs for each kid. We still haven't gotten around to the beauty bark portion of things, but the IMPORTANT parts got done.







In only three days, we started seeing some seed sprouts! The kids were sooooo excited! We're hoping to remember to take weekly pictures to document the growth!