How Does Your Garden Grow?

Last year we tried our hand at gardening. I mean, gardening actual food, not just flowers. We had eight "Early Girl" tomato plants, which weren't planted early at all. I think it was early June by the time I finally got them in the ground! I watered and watered and watered, and the little plants grew and grew and grew, but a funny thing wasn't happening. There were no actual tomatoes! The plants were bursting through their cages, but there was no "fruit". *Sarah, please don't tell your Dad, he'll laugh me out of town!* I asked my Dad why my tomatoes weren't growing, and after asking a few questions, discovered that I was watering too much, and in order to make them flower and fruit, I had to cut back on the watering! So, we got our "bumper" crop of tomatoes (more than we could handle) in about August. Needless to say, I felt a little inadequate after my first trial at gardening.

This year JB's on board. He went to our local nursery yesterday and loaded up on plant seeds, special plant food, little trays so we can start to grow our tomatoes, squash and pepper plants inside. He blocked off the garden into sections and designated where each crop would go. Our cute neighbor, Jeanne climbed up the fence to check on our progress. I love Jeanne. I can ask her stupid questions and she doesn't laugh at me. Well, she sometimes laughs at me, but it's in a loving way. Yesterday I called her and asked her if she wanted our extra sugar snap pea seeds. I said, "They're just going to waste, do you need any?" She said, "You know, Amy...you can keep pea seeds until next year if you want. They're seeds, they don't go bad in a year." This was new news to me. I told you I was new at this! So, yesterday we got some peas, leaf lettuce and walla-walla onions planted. Here are JB and Yaks. I think Yaks is saying, "Could I hey-olp you?"



And this morning....check it out.


Snow. I think everything will be fine. All the things we planted yesterday can be planted "as soon as the ground can be worked", so I think they can stand the cold temps. Mental note for next year: Check the weather report before planting.

Boo got in on the action this year by planting some pansies. She went with Dad and got to choose her colors. Her favorite these days seems to be purple. We got them all planted and then Yaks woke up from his nap (insert "Psycho" music here). He wanted to dig in the dirt, too! He got his shovel and had that hungry look in his eye. I directed his efforts down to the garden patch.

Boo corralled her flowers so she could keep a close eye on them.
Note how Boo's strategically placed the little plant sticks around the pots? She thought those were so great! Just in case we forget what's growing there, you know? One can never be too careful.