Garden of Eatin'

We finally have a garden. Justin has been working his cute, little tush off.

We were unsuccessful in Asheville.

The first year we were in the apartment.

The second year we planted a full garden but alas, too many trees, too much shade- and no desire to cut down those wonderful trees, led to no garden. Oh, that and it was really not easily accessible, our yard was weird there.

The third year we planted tomatoes in buckets and they were growing like champs and Justin lost his job, we moved and the tomatoes were given to a friend who said they were little champions... so sad not to get to harvest.

This means that a garden has been on Justin's mind for so long. And, he has been ready to go since February. In fact, he was out there digging out grass in 30 degree windy, weather, complete with gloves, hat and a teeth chattering smile.

But all that work and we finally have a garden just our size.

It was all I could do just to step out the door and take a picture of him working- it was that cold!



When Justin first mowed our lawn he found these landscape stones, placed in a sort of bed around the yard. They were so low in the ground you couldn't tell they were there. So, we harvested them. Actually our friends Matt, Emily and kiddos, made a family night of helping us, dig them out of the ground. The boys were absolutely excited about all the grubs, worms and fire ants they found... I guess we'll get to the grass later.

The stone harvest...

Here is the final product. I really love how it looks. I think it will be really fun, I am planning on making homemade salsa, I haven't done it for five years... and canning pickles. Not to mention eating as much zucchini, yellow squash and cantaloupe we can get.

The buckets are my little addition to the garden. Our two cats go through a lot of litter. So, we have all these buckets. They were great for moving breakable items here to Texas and we try to reuse them, not just always trash them. (Let me clarify, I am not just keeping them to hoard junk, we use them or lose them) But anyway, we bought a few extra plants and decided to do some cheap container gardening.

I spray painted the buckets. Justin filled the bottom with some random gravel, then some newspaper, and finally I finished it off with our fresh dirt from "Smelly's farm" - yes that is their name! I planted, basil, cilantro and two cherry tomato bushes. Let's see how they do. I think they should be kinda fun. I really want to get some more containers to put around the patio- we are thinking of growing some heat tolerant peas in hanging baskets.... but, lets just see when we get that done!