Our Vegetable Garden is IN!!!!

Well I have been wanting to post about my garden for a while now.  I held off because I wanted to make sure it was successfully growing before I shared it on my blog.  I ordered and am growing ALL of my plants from seeds this year.  This was a bit intimidating I have to admit.  I am definitely no master gardener and every year I am learning new things.

I started gardening 6 years ago with a few tomato plants.  I purchased them from the farmers market already 4 inches tall.  I got about 10 tomatoes and I quickly learned tomato plants need FULL sun for any real good crop.  For the past 5 growing seasons I have purchased all my plants already a few inches high from our local farmers market.  I have tried cucumbers, hot peppers, bell peppers, strawberries, onions, tons of tomatoes, garlic, basil, corn, cilantro, bush & pole green beans, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, butternut squash, raspberries, blueberreis, and zucchini (lots and lots of zucchini- so much so that I can't even think of growing it this year LOL).  It has been interesting and a great learning experience.  I look forward to August every year when all the fruits (and veggies) of our labor are ripe for the picking and eating :)

It has been so fun now with Drew, he LOVES helping and it is a great excuse to get outside every day and enjoy time together.  Every year I am working on how to set up the plants, last year I had Emma in June and I did not weed at all, it was all  over grown, and not very nice looking.  Although it didn't look very pleasing to the eye it did produce pretty well.  This year I decided that our garden would not only be functional, but also add to our back yard, not make it look bad LOL.  Thankfully my husband agreed (after a little begging) to help me make it "cute".  It has taken a few weekends of working on it, but last night we finally finished it.

Before

Our composted manure piles.

 

My wonderful husband tilling the ground, mixing the compost in.

We decided on raised beds and filled it with composted manure we got for free from a local farm.  Check craigslist for cheap or possibly even free aged/composted manure.  

After

Stone path dividing the beds

We were going to let the grass grow between the beds, but my mother in law gave us the idea of  making a little path and that way we don't have to do any more work than we have to (like weed-whacking).  LOVE how they turned out, makes me want to set up a little table and have tea in the garden.  Not quite big enough for that, but we have been having tea parties by our play set this week, it has been lovely!