Our Vegetable Garden

The last summer or two I have wanted to plant some vegetables, but it just never happened.  This year Mia has been VERY interested in flowers and anything that grows in general.  This was the motivation I needed to get something planted.  First though I needed to figure out where we were going to do it.  I am not known for my green thumb, so I wasn't really feeling like digging up a portion of my lawn.  The left side of our house has been a sore spot for awhile.  We had some bushes there that had been fried by the sun and we had recently dug them out.  There was a huge bed there that was nothing but dried, cracked dirt and was a bit of an eyesore.  I decided that would be our new vegetable garden. :) 

Between battling the business of summer and the rain we have had, the garden has progressed in steps.  We finally now have everything in.  Here are some pics of our progress...

5.27.10--Planting of Zucchini and Cucumbers

Mia with the zucchini plants

Look at that lovely dried out dirt :)

Mia has been very interested in worms lately (which is an improvement upon her being terrified when they were all over the driveway after a rain). Here she is with one of her "worm friends" on her shovel.

Zucchini and cucumber plants in

Tiny cucumber plants

Tiny zucchini plants

6.5.10--Adding the trellis for the zucchini, bean tower for the beans, and planting the beans

Because this area is small, doesn't have a lot of space and I wanted to plant a couple of different things, I decided to try and vine both the zucchini and cucumbers.  I had found several links online when I had googled it where people had successfully grown their veggies on a trellis, so we will see! 

A look at the whole garden-thanks to Cort for edging it too!

The trellis for the zucchini (which are growing well), still need to get one for the cucumbers

Our tomato plant

(Bush Early Girl for a certain someone who is ready to see things grow NOW)

Bean tower for the Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans

6.11.10--Garden Complete!

We added in a trellis for the cucumbers as well as adding some mushroom compost to keep the dirt from drying out so easily.   The beans have been sprouting up like crazy.

Zucchini plants growing larger, I added some cable ties to start guiding them toward the trellis

Tomato plant with 2 flowers on it (hard to see)

Cucumber plants are growing slowly, but making some progress

Beans! 

Sadly as I write this, they no longer look like this as some creature made his way in and ate the leaves off of all the stems.  I am a little perplexed about what it might be as I am pretty sure there is no way a bunny could have gotten in since it is locked down like Fort Knox.  :)  Maybe birds or chipmunks?  I told Mia we would replant and try to put something else more secure around them or on top like chicken wire.

We also put in some carrot seeds and a pumpkin plant.  We did this last minute as my sister's husband Mike was nice and had come and put in some plants for us which the bunnies promptly ate up, so we had an empty space again.  :(  There are some bulbs there though that should come up next year.  I will probably need to fence at least the carrots once they start coming up.

I am so glad we decided to do this. Mia has had so much fun helping me out wearing her princess garden gloves.  :)  Cole and Cort have had lots of daddy-son bonding time as they bike around the neighborhood and go to the park as we work on the garden.  Both of the kids love to check the garden each day to see the progress.  I just hope we are able to grow SOMETHING this summer and we can battle all the creatures living in our yard. :)  I will continue to update as the summer goes on.