garden is growing!

I mentioned in an earlier post, that though I really love the idea of feeding yourself from your own garden, I've failed miserably in the past. I'm no expert, so everything I've learned has been through trial and error. One year I planted in a sunny patch of the back yard, but we went out of town for a weekend and what didn't die from burning sun and lack of water was trampled soon after by the dogs. Last year I came up with (what I thought was) an ingenious idea. I planted in the side yard which had a bit more shade and was gated off from the dogs. Unfortunately, this time the soil was too rocky and there was not enough sun so not much wanted to grow there either.

We have had luck several years in a row, however, with a planter box. It's simply a wooden box on the deck filled with dirt. We've had tomatoes, herbs, and most recently strawberries all do very well in it. This made me think that if I really wanted a successful garden, I should do what I know works, only on a larger scale. So this year we have decided to build raised beds.

After doing a lot of research, we decided to construct our beds out of untreated cedar planks. It was important to me that the wood was not treated with any chemicals because they can potentially leach into your soil and therefore your plants and your food. Cedar also seemed like a great idea because it is naturally pest, rot, and mildew resistant. We found 8' boards at Home Depot for about $6 each. Our beds are going to be 4'x8' and two boards high, so the construction of each bed will be about $36. I'm thinking that these beds should last us several years (and yield LOTS of vegetables) so that we'll easily make that money back.

After spending several days studying our yard and figuring out where we get the most sun, we decided to put three beds in the far back corner. This makes me a bit nervous because our closest water spigot is on the opposite side of our house, but we'll just buy an extra long hose and cross our fingers. We also plan on fencing the beds off from our sweet but overly curious dogs.

In another part of the yard, some of our herbs have faithfully re-appeared! I have chives and lemon balm growing already so I think I will keep all of my herbs over here. I LOVE perennials. Its so wonderful being able to rely on certain plants without doing any work! My strawberries were supposed to come back again this year too, and while they grew really strong last year I don't see as much as a new leaf or shoot from this plant so I don't know if it will happen. We'll see, I guess!

But the really exciting recent happening... is that MY SEEDS HAVE SPROUTED!!! I have teeny eggplants, but both kinds of tomatoes have grown nearly two inches tall overnight! The only thing that hasn't shown any signs of wanting to appear yet are the green peppers. I am hoping that they'll show their faces yet! I know it's silly, but I find the seedlings so adorable. I love the way the tomatoes lean toward the sun. It's especially cool knowing that one day a few months from now, these plants will be feeding us! I can hardly wait!