Tummy Time

TOMATOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Big or Go Home

We picked our first vegetables from the garden on Sunday. Cate and Ben were beside themselves with excitement.

After filling a basket with jalepeno peppers, cucumbers and banana peppers they immediately jumped on their bikes, pedaling furiously, in order to show off their haul to the neighbors.

(NOTE: I include the final photo as proof that the cucumber leaves are, in fact, bigger than Ben's head as mentioned in a previous post).

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary...

The garden.

Oh my.

We saw Chris' grandpa, an avid gardener, over Memorial Day and filled him in on our recently planted 6x6 plot of wholesome family goodness.

His eyes got big as we described everything we'd planted and he commented that it might be a bit ambitious for a first time garden.

He was right. This garden is huge.

Outrageous.

Overflowing it's little chain link (hopefully rabbit proof) fence.

Think Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors.

This picture was taken one week ago and with the hot steamy weather we've been having the plants are now, at least one foot taller than they appear here.

The leaves on our cucumber plants are bigger than Ben's head. (I admit the kid has kind of a small head but these leaves are huge).

Cate and Ben were giddy with excitement this morning when they noticed little baby jalepeno peppers and baby green peppers starting to sprout.

The only things that are not thriving in our garden are the pumpkins, watermelons, and sunflowers. I have two theories as to why this might be the case. First, we started these from seeds (rather than starter plants). Second, I might have inadvertently weeded out the seedlings while tending to my little garden a few weeks ago.

I guess I should have googled images of "pumpkin seed sprouts" before heading outside.

So far it's shaping up to be a good learning experience for all of us.

Be Careful What You Wish For

A few months ago I wrote about how I wanted to plant a (very!) small garden this year.

By the time May rolled around Chris and I were pretty sure that said garden was not going to happen. We told each other that maybe we'd try to get something planted next year, when the kids were a little older.

Then, on Saturday, we went to Lowe's.

The minute we walked in the store we saw little individual containers containing everything needed to grow one little watermelon (or tomato or pumpkin) plant. And for $0.97 this was a garden that I could fully support.

We tossed them into the cart.

A few aisles later we saw Sesame Street gardening kits. These were only $5.99 and each kit had everything one would need to grow six watermelon, tomato or pumpkin plants.

Even better, I thought. Still inexpensive, but definitely manageable. Cate and Ben would have a few more plants to care for but this tiny garden would still fit easily on a window sill.

We returned the individual containers and tossed the Sesame Street gardening kits into the cart.

A few aisles later we saw a little raised bed gardening kit, complete with everything one would need to have a 4 ft.-by-4 ft. garden patch.

By now our minds were brimming with fantasies of sunflowers. Green peppers. Roma tomatoes. Onions.

We would make salads. Gazpacho. Salsa. The kids would nibble tomatoes right off the vine. We could grow our own Halloween pumpkins.

And then...to make a long story short, the 4x4 kit was too flimsy. And small. So Chris made a late night trip back to Lowe's to get lumber to make a 6 ft-by-6 ft garden plot, which he put together in the dark.

Immediately after breakfast this morning we started planting. Luckily Cate had seen something on PBS about how to plant a garden so she could tell me what to do. (What a fool I was not to let her watch tv until she was 2...rest assured I won't make that same mistake with Maggie).

Under her direction we planted: tomatoes, red and green peppers, green onions, jalepenos, banana peppers, pumpkins, watermelon, and sunflowers.

The kids are giddy with excitement. Every time we come home they want to check their garden to see if anything has sprouted.

I am a little terrified. I know absolutely nothing about gardening. We have killed every houseplant we've ever owned. We've seen bunnies, deer and even a fox stroll through our yard on occasion.

All of this does not bode well for our little garden.

Even though the odds are stacked against this little garden, the kids are happy. And I am too. We've created something that wasn't there yesterday and, with any luck, we'll actually grow something.

And, with even more luck, my kids will actually eat what we grow.

(Dirt? Yuck!!!)


(Ta Da!)