I think this year we finally will get a garden. I have not had a good track record with vegetable gardens. I did however get a decent herb garden planted at our last house. I did have a garden in the backyard. It looked wonderful and the plants were doing well until the rain came. I somehow managed to pick the worst area in the yard for the garden. It looked like a lake. Honestly birds would come and play in it. I did take some advantage of it. We released tadpoles in it. The tomatoes died but I grew frogs so I guess it wasn't a total loss.
This year I am putting in raised beds. I have six 4'x4' raised beds made out of cedar. They slide together so I don't need tools to assemble it. Good thing because my not so helpful husband has already said he will not assemble them.
Since I am building up this year I need more soil. The problem was that I had no idea how much soil I needed. Fifteen years ago that would have been a problem. But now I have a computer and I am not afraid to use it. I did a Google search on soil calculators and found many. http://www.ataktrucking.com/materials-calculator/topsoil-calculator Somethings on the internet really are useful. I am buying the top soil this weekend and only need a little more than 2 cubic yards. I even found top soil on sale. I love a good sale!
Early this week we planted our seeds. We went to a couple different stores and the kids had so much fun picking out the seeds they wanted to grow. Some of their choices are a red colored corn, kaleidoscope (multi-colored) carrots, purple peas, sunflowers and mini pumpkins (called Jack Be Littles). I hope that growing their own vegetables will encourage them to eat what they grow.
Already most of the seeds have sprouted. It is the corn that is growing the fastest. The mixed color pepper however still are not appearing above the soil. This is the third time I have tried to grow peppers. All I want is a purple pepper.
One of our local grocery stores sold them a few years ago. When you cut them open they are green. I fell in love with the flavor and then they stopped selling them. Same thing with purple potatoes. Why do grocery stores do that? They suck you in with something new and exciting then yank it away as soon as you start to rely on it.
So I had the bright idea to grow them. That is how this garden quest began. One year I thought that I had succeeded. I bought a packet of mixed color peppers. I started growing them and they sprouted. I planted them in an upside down planter and they grew. They got bigger and bigger and they were tomatoes. I planted peppers and tomatoes grew! My first garden failure, though we did have some tasty tomatoes that summer.
Now I am preparing our backyard for planting. There is one obstacle still. Our backyard is like a swamp right now. I was out yesterday and the mud grabbed onto my boot and kept it. I of course kept walking. Into the mud my foot went, the mud squished between my toes and it was cold. YICK!
Bonus, we are between thunder storms right now. One just passed and woke up my son (he is in the bed next to me pretending to be asleep.) and another is aimed right for us. How long does it take a yard to dry out? Will this be another lake? I am thinking positive thoughts and firmly believe that I will finally have a garden this year (I hope).
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