How does your garden grow?

I’m just going to say it people, I am DOMINATING gardening.  

Remember these:

 Well, now they look like this:

I told you.  Killing it.

I’ll do my best to carefully guide you through the intricate and well thought-out process that is responsible for this bountiful future harvest.  Haha, what I meant was, I’ll bullet point some of the steps I can still remember.  Basically, I totally winged it.

I’ve already walked you through the building of the planters.  After they were built we filled them with a mix of fill dirt, peat moss, and compost.  Then we mixed it all up with a hoe.  No fancy tiller thing-a-ma-jig, just a regular ole garden hoe I found in the garage – I’m not even sure where it came from. 

Then we waited for what felt like FOREVER.  We had to wait until the mid-west weather was ready to cooperate.  Finally, around the middle of June I went to Wal-Mart and picked out a bunch of vegetables – based solely on what my family likes to eat of course.  Then MB and I planted them.  Most of them.  It started to hail so we had to take a break.  As soon as the hail had stopped I planted the rest of it.  In the rain.  See, I told you, totally planned out.  The next morning I took a few pictures.

In the red and yellow cages are two different types of tomato plants.  In the middle is a cucumber plant.  The row in front is of sweet potatoes.  On the left side and around the back we planted onions.

This planter has a strawberry plant on the left, cauliflower in the middle and green bean seeds on the right.

Other than water, only two things have been added to the garden, grass clippings and red pepper flakes.  My mom told me that if you cover the soil around your plants with grass clippings it will help water stay in and weeds stay out.  So we did that.

We did have a bit of a snafu.  I asked J to dump the clippings into the beds with the promise that I would then spread them out.  Not thinking, he put them right on top of the green beans.  Oops!  I guess he forgot about the whole plants need sun to grow thing.  So I just brushed them off that side.

The red pepper flakes were added in an effort to keep the dog out!  Apparently our husky, we’ll call her Butface, just can’t resist strawberries.  What a weirdo.  She also dug up a few of my cauliflower plants, probably just for fun.  So far, it’s worked.  Fingers crossed!  I really don’t want to have to put up one of those tacky chicken wire fence contraptions to keep her out.

As for keeping the garden watered, I’ve been doing that by hand with my trusty watering can!

This might seem ridiculous to some.  My Mom thinks I’m insane.  But we don’t have a sprinkler system and I’m the type who would forget to turn off the hose.  So, every day I walk to the end of my yard with my trusty 2 gallon watering can.  Each bed gets a full can.  I water it every morning and If it’s been a hot day I water it in the evening too.  I know it sounds like a pain but I kind of like it.  It’s fun watching everything get taller and fuller.  The fresh Caprese salads are right around the corner.  I can feel it!