My Garden

I was not planning to have a garden this year. First of all the past several years my husband has always planted our garden. He gardens very well as an engineer. I bet he's rows are the most even and straight rows in the WORLD! And I love him for this and much more. :o) But since we moved to our new home he has focused on finishing our up stairs. So I did not give a garden a second thought. Well, my friend Helen had another thought. In the front yard there was this square spot that the previous owners had their children's play equipment in. Helen looked at this piece of land and saw a perfect square foot garden. I saw old pine bark and square pvc pipe! Helen is a wonder gardener! I kill everything, I even killed a catus!! I had NO idea how to start a garden of my own. She said to go get cow manure and sprinkle it on the ground....ok first concern she said was cow manure..me and cow poop, I see problems already. Well I did it, I found ACE hardware (yes a hardware store...I know??)but they had the poop. I help load 6 bags of poop in my van (yes, I did have white pants on and yes they have dark spots now). I unloaded them and boy did that small square grow in size while I tried to spread the poop around. But I did it with four kids watching and laughing (the key word is watching). Then that week Patrick tilled the ground for me. Now I was ready for plants, right?

Helen arrived and helped me, well ok planed the whole lay out. Then we moved 12 large stepping stones to the garden area. This way the garden was divided in four equal parts with a circle in the middle. BTW: my favorite shape is a square. That's another story :o). Then we started planting, well once again she planted and I watched and took notes. No, really I did plant some stuff. We added several tomatoes, basil, thyme, lemon balm, peppers, tomatillos, and a gourd. How cute all those baby plants were. Then a few days later I (yes I) planted squash, corn, cucumbers, green beans, and sunflowers. I threw them in holes, no real plan.

Well, I watered and watered. Then I watched and watched. Was like pregnancy, slow start and then bloom. The first plant was this wonderful gourd plant that Helen brought from her yard. WOW what large leaves and flowers. Then one day I was walking and weeding and notice the largest yellow squash ever! Well, my first garden test. That was NOT a gourd plant but squash...oops! Now all the squash plants are producing well. The kids are soooo tried of squash. Sorry we are on a farm now you eat what we grow, hee hee.

Here is a picture of the mystery squash/gourd plant on the right and my so called squash plant on the left. Notice the size difference. Now, you can see why I think Helen is one of the best gardeners...everything she plants grows well! I still have a lot to learn about gardening. But it is a rewarding thing to do. To watch a small plant, grow and produce something.

To quote my favorite gardener, "All plants want to live." by Helen.

Some pictures of my first garden, who had to fight to live.

This tomato plant and basil were planted by the front steps in the flower bed. I like to see practical plants and decorative plants planted together.