Viola! We Have a Garden!

The last few months we have been working hard on turning a weed patch in the corner of our yard into a garden.  Here is what we had to work with!  

I spent a few weeks spraying and trying to kill all the weeds and grass.  It was hard when the weather was still cool to get everything to die.  After that we evened out all the ground and got it ready for the weed blocker tarps.   

Here's a view with the weed blocker down.  We decided to just do half the area for the garden and the other half has a small fire pit and we are still making plans for the other section.

Our awesome neighbor let us borrow his truck to get mulch.  I was shocked how much we needed.  

Here's my awesome husband shoveling it all out by hand.  

We were lucky enough to have some rock donated to us from some neighbors that were re-landscaping a section of their yard and didn't need it any more.  It saved us a good chunk of money and looked great  around the edge of the mulch.  Our awesome neighbors came to help shovel it out.  

Looking good!!!

Now it was time to build our grow boxes.  Liam even wanted to help daddy!  We used Cedar Wood from home depot and I love it.  In case you ever build grow boxes make sure you get the right wood.  We almost got treated wood thinking that it would be best because it wont deteriorate but I guess it can leak poison into the ground and your crops!  scary!  So we paid more and got the Cedar wood and hopefully poison free!

One of the finished products.  Jas made two 4x4's and one 4x8.  Then we used railroad ties for the edges.  It was great because Home depot pre cut all the wood for us for free.  All we had to do was assemble them.  

We filled them with top soil, and mulch then it was time for planting!  I was so excited!

This is just a few of the things we planted.  All together we had a few types of zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, spinach, lettuce, beans, and onion.  

Planted and ready to Grow!

 A couple weeks later we have beautiful sprouting vegetables!  

A day in the life

So this summer has been a crash course in yard work for us!  Jason was a little more educated and we were blessed he had a knowledge of sprinkler systems and such or we would have been in trouble.  We have quite a large yard and it has been a huge learning process.  My mom helped me get some flowers in our beds and they have done really well!  Our petunias and I can't remember how to spell the smaller flower have just exploded!

 We have also tried planting some bushes to fill in along the sides of the house.  They have not done so well.  I believe it is called Golden splash.  I started researching online to see if I was over watering or under watering and basically it said this is one of the most adaptable plants and should be fine with whatever.  That was a shot to my gardening self esteem!  I can't even keep one of the most durable plants alive?  I must be a failure!  

Weird thing is in my other bed they are doing great!  We will just have to see if they come back to life next year I guess.  You can also see in this lower picture my red bush is doing well, but the small yellow ones at the back have been struggling.  Not sure they will make it through the winter.  

 The front bed is a work and progress but it's coming along.  I have some ideas for it next year that I am pretty excited about!

 My flower pots have also done really well!  The hardest part for me is trimming them back but I know when I do they will be prettier in the weeks to come!

 Most of our neighbors have gardens this summer and we have been blessed with tons of fruit and vegetables.  We got a bag of Peaches the other day and I decided to make freezer jam.  I have never done it before but I looked it up online and realized how easy it was!  All my friends and neighbors have been canning like crazy too and I was feeling a little un-domestic so this is my attempt at canning.. Ha I was extremely proud of myself, even if it was just freezer jam with 3 or 4 steps!  As you can see a lot of my fruit migrated to the top of my jars and I guess that is because how ripe it was, but it still taste awesome!  Do you know how much sugar is in freezer jam?  I am pretty sure you could make anything into freezer jam and it would taste good because of all the sugar!  3 cheers for sugar!  whoop! whoop! whoop!

 My other domestic activity and exciting new task is I joined a card club!  I am very excited/intimidated/ this will be fun/what am I thinking I am not crafty?  12 women make 12 cards each month than get together and exchange them.  I got to cheat the first month because my friend had a set all cut out and ready to go but they needed to be assembled.  She donated them to me to help me get started!  So mine is in the far right bottom corner with the blue tag.  It was way fun getting all the cards though and I love  sending cards to people but then I remember that I stink at crafty things and want to run to hallmark and just buy 12 to pass out!  Wish me luck this month, hopefully I can pull it off!

 Jason's fun new thing is he is an assistant coach for little league 11-12 year olds.  He has been loving it and it is fun to go to his games and cheer them on!  

 My two handsome boys!  

"GO LOGAN GRIZZLIES!"