The GARDEN

I love gardening. However, I don't remember it being this much work! Let me show you what we have done so far. First of all, our yard started as this.. See that ugly building in the background behind Kenadi? We tore that down last fall, so that we could have a garden this year. Well, I shouldn't say "we" tore it down, it was Randy and J that did it. I decided that it was too dangerous for me to stay and help that much. BUT, after it was torn down, Randy and I ( I really did help with this) tore the foundation out of the ground, and that was work made for one of the chain gangs! It was a pain!
Next, Randy rota-tilled the ground. We chopped up some of the grass too, so our garden would be bigger.
After that, we planted! Well, I forgot to take a picture of the dirt with just the seeds in it, but that would be boring anyways. You can see some of the things that we are growing. I"ll name what you can see starting from front to back. In the front is strawberries (well, those that didn't get eaten by larvae), in the pots are blueberries, behind that and to the right are lettuce, raspberries on the very right side, beans and peas (which are ripening and are so good!), some larger tomato plants ( there are smaller ones that I had to transplant that you probably can't see very well.... they are in what looks like a bare spot), and the bushy things in mounds are cucumber, yellow squash, watermelon, and zucchini, and behind that is the sweet corn that was absolutely mandatory that we have.
Here is a better view of the corn. Randy would want you all to see these. They are his pride and joy.

Here is one of my poor strawberry plants that has so many leaves eaten off by June bugs! I go out every night before bed and find them and kill them. Soon I'm going to get something that will kill them for me. Who knew that they ate strawberries!? It is also their larvae that ate the roots of so many of my strawberry plants before I knew what was going on. Don't worry, Guerney's (that's who we ordered a lot of our plants and seeds from) will send me a whole new shipment of strawberries when it is time to plant them again-free of extra charge!

Since Randy did so much of the labor to get the dirt ready, we both are the ones who planted the seeds, but I am the one who does most of the weeding, mulching, and edging. It's work, but it's fun work! This is one of my favorite activities because we have the best time as a family working out there. Gardening= work + great conversation + a very muddy Kenadi + great food!