The Garden

This is a project that I've been wanting to do for a few years now. My sister Jennifer had one last year (didn't quite get around to it this year!), my friends Signe, Brandy, and many others have them. I knew I could too. Last year I had a failed attempt at tomato plants in pots (it helps if you start out with good soil instead of just making do with whatever, rock, dirt, trash combination is already in the pot). So this year I wanted to do it right. We brought Chris and Andrew over about a month ago to help us dig up the grass, put in the frame and fill it with compost, etc. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of them working, but they were a BIG help. Here's one of our other (little) helpers:

We got everything planted the Saturday before Easter. Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Onions, Squash, Cilantro, Basil, Bell Peppers, Cantaloupe and Watermelon. It's a lot, but some of the plants were on clearance at Lowes, so we decided to give them a shot, and I wanted to try a bit of everything to see what we could grow, what we liked to eat, etc.

After about two weeks, it grew to this:

And it's still growing! I love it! I'm so excited and love going out there to check on the plants. I've got squash and tomatoes growing, and every plants has flowers on it. I decided to use some cilantro on a whim when I was cooking dinner one night this week. It was fun to go outside to get my ingredients and it tasted great!

A rogue corn plant sprouting up in my lettuce. I wonder how that got there?

My helper. This is one of the reasons I love it. Melissa will help me water, will pull off lettuce leaves and eat them. I can't wait for the tomatoes because I know she will love them! It's a great way for us to be outside.