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: