Green Thumb???

I've decided I don't have a green thumb...at least not yet. This year, as part of our food storage efforts, Brad and I decided to plant a garden in our back yard. The project started MONTHS ago with Brad and his Dad chopping down a very large tree in our back yard. That was so that we could get some sunlight in order to have our garden grown. We decided to do a modified version of a square foot garden. First we had to build our garden box with ply wood (that was Brad's department). Then we hauled a bunch of dirt from a garden center to our back yard and filled the garden box, then we measured our one foot by one foot squares, then we planted. I thought the planting part would be a fun thing for my nephew Braxton to participate in. I asked him if he wanted to help me make a garden and for the whole rest of the day he walked around saying "make a garden, make a garden". When we finally went outside to "make our garden" I got everything situated and dug a hole in the soil and then gave Braxton a plant to place in the garden and he took one look at the garden, realized that "making a garden" involved getting into the dirt and wanted NOTHING to do with it. So I ended up planting all of our garden. I did have Braxton pose for a picture though :) We ended up planting a couple of broccoli plants, some onions, some lettuce and some peas. That was all done in March and then I had to wait until May to plant all of the other things that I was really excited about planting (i.e. squash, bell peppers, cantaloupe). Unfortunately my May was so swamped with trying to finish my furniture project (mentioned in a previous post) I never got around to planting the rest of my garden. We did plant a few tomato plants in June but that was as far as we got. I can't really say we've had a real plentiful harvest this year. So far my lettuce was completely devoured by bugs, my onions only grew to the size of a golf balls, and we are still waiting on the rest. We did get a few peas, however, I didn't get them frozen fast enough and they went bad on my kitchen counter (I know...what a waste). The broccoli is just now starting to show some fruit, which I am excited about and we have a few GREEN tomatoes hanging on our tomato plants...so we will see. I am just going to chalk up this year to experience. It was our first attempt. Hopefully next year we will know better what we are doing.



We have yet to enjoy the fruits of our labors, but if we ever get a red tomato or the broccoli finally comes in fully, I will be sure to post a picture of us enjoying it.