How Does Our Garden Grow?

Last year was our first year (I think?) of having a garden.  None of us are certified green-thumbs....far from it actually...but we are trying hard to do what our Prophet asks of us and one of those is to plant a garden and learn to grow food and sustain ourselves.  It's always a good lesson to learn.....but sometimes it's a difficult one.  We definitely learned from our mistakes from last year and also learned what worked.  We are ready to try to do better this year - which involves learning how to can our veggies since we seemed to get more than we could eat last year.  

John made our garden boxes last year and they held up beautifully....along with most of our dirt.  All we had to do was add a little supplemental dirt and pick our veggies we wanted this year.  We mostly have a "salsa garden" since we don't really burn through a lot of veggies in this house....and lets be honest...we are working with box gardens here folks.  Not a whole lot of options when it comes to plants.

We took a family trip to the local nursery and picked out what we wanted to plant.  Addison is getting very involved this year as well.  She got to pick some stuff out and even help Daddy plant it when we got home.  She also got to learn lots about worms and how to catch them, hold them, and let them "swim" in a wheelbarrow of water.  ;o)  Our kids love playing in the dirt and I love it too - except for the part when it comes time to clean them.  It's also a challenge to explain to Jonas that he no longer gets to treat the garden like his own personal sandbox since there are now plants growing in it.  

Daddy gets credit for doing most of the work....okay almost all of it.  I got to sit back and watch and enjoy it from the comfort of my lawn chair.  It takes all my energy these days to be pregnant since I'm nearing the end.  I did plant a few herbs and some strawberries in their own containers while Addison and Daddy planted the boxes and veggies.  They did such a great job and it looks beautifully.  Here's to hoping this family learns even more about growing gardens!  And here's to hoping we don't have a scorching hot summer that fries all our plants like we did last year.