Green Thumb Wannabe

Growing up my mom always kept a beautiful garden with blooming flowers and plants galore. She dabbled a bit in planting some fruits and vegetables and I have fond memories of picking strawberries from our little patch just outside the kitchen window. I also remember being swarmed by bees every time I did this, perhaps a pivotal moment in my lifelong aversion to bugs, insects, and creepy crawlies of any sort. But anyways.....

I have always wanted to grow a huge edible garden and now that we finally have a yard that gets full sunlight and prime east/west exposure I am super excited. 2 of my sister-in-laws Bethany and Rebecca offered to help share the cost and labor of starting and maintaining our little plot. So, I did what I always do when I need to educated myself on something specific and hit up our local library for some reading material.

We decided on a raised bed garden design because these are supposed to maintain the best drainage and growing conditions for vegetables while cutting down on weeding and bug infestation. So with my handy hubby as the foreman and his brothers Chris and Luke as the worker bees, they spent a Sunday afternoon constructing us a planter box that is 10 ft long, 4 ft wide, and 2 ft high. It is beautiful. Since this is our trial year of planting, we decided to start with one box and perhaps add another next year should we be successful.

I've started some of the slower growing warm season vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers inside from seeds and the sprouts are doing lovely so far. Next week our 3 cubic yards of organic soil and compost mix will be delivered so we can fill the box and get the cool season seeds planted outside. Stay tuned for garden updates throughout the next couple of months. I am hopeful for a good crop and that my brown thumb starts to turn a little greener as I figure out what the heck I'm doing.