Monday, May 25, 2009

How does your garden grow?

This past weekend I spent some much needed time in the garden....it's been neglected for quite some time now, seeing as how at this point last year I was mom to a newborn with little time for gardening. I think I planted a few tomato plants last year and that was about all I had the time or energy for. Saturday morning, Aliza and I headed to our local Agway and bought all sorts of veggies and seeds and manure and soil....even some new garden gloves and a trowel! Just the motivation I needed to get to work.....So, I walked outside and was greeted with this sight:

Pretty scary, right? That green patch? Right in the middle there? That's actually some mint that has grown wild, right in the middle of my garden. I got to work weeding while Aliza sat and played here:

After a little while she got tired of sitting, so we took a break and went for a swing:

She does love her swing!

After the swing ride, I decided to go back to hoeing and Aliza decided to come and help me: Of course, Aliza's version of help is to crawl in the dirt and pick up rocks. Which she then either handed to me, or tried to eat:

My productivity has seriously declined at this point. But, I did manage to finish hoeing by the end of Day 1:

No more weeds (but I did leave the mint!), ground all turned up and ready for the manure and soil I bought. And the veggies.
Day 2 dawned cloudy and thundering but it eventually cleared enough that I managed to get outside. I mixed in the manure and the soil and got to work planting.....things were moving considerably quicker today seeing as how Aliza was napping. However, mid way through my planting, I realized that my friendly neighborhood woodchuck would have free access to my yummy veggies since we had taken the fence down. So, I decided to stop after planting some tomato plants:What you can't see in this picture (because they are buried beneath the ground, hopefully germinating away) are carrot seeds and arugula seeds. Here is where I admit that I'm about 75% enthusiasm, 20% sweat and 5% knowledge when it comes to gardening. I have no idea if my carrots and arugula will grow, but I figured I'd give it a shot.....Hey, if I can manage to make grass grow in the ugly brown spots in our lawn, I should be able to make some veggies grow. See? You can barely even SEE the brown spots (totally bragging here, I'm pretty excited about my new grass):
I also planted some herbs that I'm rather excited about:

From left to right that's parsley, rosemary, thyme (no idea that came back every year, this is last year's thyme!) cilantro, basil and a cherry tomato plant. I LOVE fresh herbs and if I had my way, I'd have them year round.

Day 3 (ahhh, how I love three day weekends!) was once again sunny so I got to work relatively early in the morning. Russ had planned to mow and then put the fence back up so I decided my veggies would be safe. Aliza was "helping" me again, this time by flinging dirt around:



With Aliza's help I did manage to finish planting....lettuce, peppers, and cucumbers! Voila! Instant garden:

5 comments:

GramS and GrampS said...

This garden has so much growing in it! Veggies and little Aliza!!
What a happy post.
We'll look forward to seeing her harvest something yummy.
Love GramS and GrampS

Anonymous said...

Loved the video.Put a smile on my face.Especially her bright,cheerful laugh,how can you not smile?
Oh,the garden does look good.
Nonna

JaxMom said...

Wow! Amazing progress! And it seems your love for gardening has been instilled in little Aliza as well. She looks right at home in the dirt! (meant in a good way, of course)

Keetha said...

My word, were you busy and productive!

Unknown said...

I'm impressed! You'll have to update us once you get to harvest everything!