how my garden grows

a few weeks ago i began my quest to grow a garden. i tend to forget about things sometimes, specifically plants and their need for care, so my goal seemed somewhat unattainable. whatever the case, i love vegetables, and not having to go the store, and i hate paying for produce. so i figured i might as well try to grow some veggies since the cost of the plants would be easily justified when our grocery bill came.

i read on pioneer woman that she had raised flower beds. they seemed cute and easy and would keep the dogs from ruining everything (really the most important thing). i convinced alex that this was a good idea and that if he really loved me he'd build me a raised bed for the garden i would kill. he said he loved me enough for that. he loved me so much that he talked me into continuing with the garden even after i realized how much more expensive it would be when i saw the cost of the wood. and screws. and dirt. whatever the case, we got the bed built and leveled. being the resourceful people we are, we used a box to fill in the gaps around the edge of the bed.
uzi was pumped that we made her a new place to sit in the sunshine.

i ran to the landscaping place and filled the back of my car up with 5000 pounds of dirt (or nine 30lb bags) and hauled them into the backyard.

we figured that we needed some sort of barrier to keep the grass and weeds from growing through. i had read somewhere that newsprint would serve as a barrier and still decompose on it's own, so we went with that. lucky for me i had a trash bag full of newsprint from when i moved 5 years ago. i knew there was a reason to keep it (thanks, dad, for teaching me to never throw anything away).

i didn't really have a real plan other than covering up the grass. it was pretty windy that day, so i just did a little at a time.

gandalf thought this was about time to get up from his nap and see how i was messing up his yard.

i guess he approved. he moved back to the porch and continued to pant for a few more hours. i know he needs a haircut. it'll happen eventually.

so i kept up the same process. a little more newsprint, another bag of dirt. i managed to get through the rest of the bags and then used my handy dandy garden rake to even things out.

i made another trip to lowes for some plants. i didn't buy any that morning because i somehow thought it was going to take a lot longer to get to this point. i picked out two different kinds of tomatoes, two green bell peppers, a jalepeno, a sweet basil, yellow squash, and zucchini. they were out of cilantro (jerkstores). plus i got a garden tool set for 5 bucks! the shovel alone was $4, so i was sold.

i did a little research on the better homes and gardens website to see how to space things out and what to put where. i knew that the squashes would get pretty big and the tomatoes would get high, so i put those on each end. i thought the herbs would do well closer to the house so i could just grab it when i needed it (rather than walk ALL the way around to the other side of the bed). then i got to digging.

i saw no need to read the directions on how deep to plant things.

i saw later that the tomatoes were supposed to be buried fairly deep. i didn't do this. a few days later when i did read this, i just piled up some more dirt. we'll see how fast they die.

i also read later that you're supposed to water the dirt and let it settle before planting. i didn't do this either. i just planted and watered and watered and watered. lucky for me i have a natural water source nearby.

would anyone like to give me $10000 so i can fix the pool? anyone?

i went back to lowes a few days later and got two bunches of cilantro i was needing. then i went to home depot for a red bell pepper plant, another zucchini to replace the sad one i started with, and a fence thing to keep the dogs from running through the garden on their way to their corner to bark. then i went back to lowes for two tomato cages. then i quit spending money for the stupid garden.

i've been watering every other day or so, just checking to see how moist the soil has been. if it looks pretty dry i give it a good soak at the bottom of the plant and in between them. today it started raining for the first time in ages, so i think i'll get a couple days off. so far so good, though. the tomatoes looked a little sad to begin with, but have perked up.

i can't wait for homegrown salsa in a few months.