GARDEN TIME

 I dream of the day when I can have a huge garden. My mom has one that runs her life, and I can't wait till that's me. Gardening is therapeutic and really fun. I loved watching all my things grow last year. We didn't get much in the way of tomatoes or squash, but we got lots of pepper and herbs. We are trying tomatoes, pepper, and herbs again this year. We are also trying corn and pumpkins. Go big or go home right?!?

I started my seeds about 2 weeks later than I'd hoped this year, but it shouldn't be a problem. This part is always my favorite. After about three days, plants start popping up like crazy. The boys absolutely love it. I do too.

 The boys got to plant corn with their dad on Saturday. These boys are pretty into whatever their dad wants to do and I love it. It's hard to know who enjoyed this more.

 Here are the tomatoes, peppers, and herb in their pots. They start growing really fast at this point and it's fun to watch.

I'm hoping to be eating a whole lot of tomatoes in August, carving pumpkins in October, and having corn coming out our ears by the fall. Either way, it's fun to watch things grow.

Our Garden

Way back in March for family night, we started our garden. We carefully planted all the seeds and even let the boys help a little. We planted 3 kinds of tomatoes; Cherry, Roma and Beefsteak. We also planted bell peppers, jalapenos, and zucchini.

We brought the seeds inside to germinate under a light and here they sat for the next month and a half. I watered them everyday and spent hours just staring at the dirt, waiting to see something.

Within weeks, everything was up and thriving.
We transplanted the young plants into barrels outside and let the sun do its thing.

They suffered a bit of shock the first week and then took off.

Sterling built me these amazing bamboo cages to contain my tomatoes. I love them!

Here is our first and only zucchini. We waited till the perfect day to pick it with the boys.

They loved it almost as much as we did. I made it into some delicious zucchini bread that was devoured in 2 days.

I started my herbs weeks after we transplanted everything outside.

It was a slow start, but now they are growing like crazy. I have basil, cilantro, chives, thyme, and oregano. The fresh cilantro has been our favorite.
We also planted acorn and butternut squash in the ground along our fence but I didn't get a good picture yet. They are behind our row of sunflowers that we are battling the birds for. The birds here are ridiculously selfish when it comes to gardens. They take everything if you don't net it right away.

We are loving our garden. We have 30 or so tomatoes that we are just waiting to try. It has been a weird growing season so we'll see how everything else goes. I look forward to many more years of gardening.