Vegetable Garden

Well, I didn't do any new experiments in the kitchen this weekend, but I was certainly busy! My husband helped me put in a vegetable garden. My mom had suggested a small garden in the backyard and maybe a couple of tomato plants to start out with. That was exactly how it started, but with my personality, that was definitely not where it ended!

I thought about a plot about 4x5 feet along the side of our fence, but my husband commented that he thought it would be much bigger. So I kept that in mind while shopping for raised garden beds. The pre-made raised beds just seemed to be too expensive, though I have to admit that the ease of putting one of those in was quite tempting.

I called around to a few tool rental places, but decided to get a light duty tiller from home Depot. I got up early Saturday morning, took the dogs for walks and headed over to go rent my tiller. They had one there and I was the only person looking to rent anything at the moment. So I asked the employee if I could go look at wood for a few minutes, then come back. I got some help from someone in the lumber department and decided on the wood I would use. I chose 4 boards that were 12 inches across and 10 feet long. That would be a really nice 10'x20' plot. Ok, now that I knew what size garden I wanted, I went back to get the tiller.

At this point, things had gotten a bit busier and after helping a few other people, the guy got back to me to show me how to use the tiller. And it wouldn't start. He said he would have a technician in at 1PM and they should have it up and running that afternoon and they would give me a call. I went ahead and got all my boards and nails and all for the garden and took those home. So my husband and I went to a nearby park for a long walk and later went to dinner...no calls. We called around 9:15PM and they said they had a tiller working and I could pick it up at 8AM.

8AM came around, and I went to get my tiller. And again, they were all broken. After a while, I ended up with a tiller from a Home Depot 15 miles away. I got it into the trunk and tied down and I was homeward bound. I cleaned up the garden area and then tilled up the ground. It was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be, but still something I could handle. At this point, I had changed my mind on the plot size to 5'x30', since that part of our yard is only 18' total across and 10' out would have been too far. That meant that I had to saw through one of the boards to make the two 5' sides. I made it about 2/3 of the way through before my husband came and took over (he had been mowing the lawn and doing other yard work while I was working on my garden).

I started to dig down so that we could partially bury the boards for the edges of the garden when I realized I needed to take the tiller back. By the time I got back, the boards were almost all in place. After lunch and a short nap, I went to get dirt to fill in the garden bed. I started with 10 bags of 40 pounds each of top soil. I ended up having to go back and get 12 more bags!!! But once that was in and the little fencing was up, the garden looked perfect.

I did some research and chose a bunch of things I want in the garden. Some of the things include various kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers (jalapeno, cayenne and sweet bell peppers), onions, chives, spinach, and some herbs. I think I will still have some space left over, so maybe I will also grow some peas or even some sort of squash, we will see about that. Later in the season I am hoping to add garlic, horseradish and broccoli raab.

I have a feeling I have gotten in way over my head on this project, but then again, it wouldn't be me if I didn't go completely gung ho on something. I am very excited about my garden (I woke up at 6:30AM...on my own...before the dogs woke me up!!!!) and hope it will be a great experience that I repeat for many years to come.