Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

(tomato starts in old yogurt containers)

Well, I don't know about Mary, but mine has taken a lot of work lately. My dear husband built some raised beds for our vegetable and strawberry gardens, and we had some dirt and compost delivered for said beds, so last week was spent moving the dirt. Of course, they delivered the dirt the day before a huge rainstorm, so we had to do our best to keep the dirt dry.




Moving the dirt allowed for a great science lesson about "garden soup": the best combination of ingredients for garden soil. It also made for mud footprints across the carpet. We finished filling the beds on Saturday, and have enough leftover compost for the trees and bushes that should be delivered soon. We also have enough dirt to fill some holes and start reversing the negative grade against the house. (As if we didn't have enough projects started already.)

I want to promise my neighbors that our yard won't always look this pot-marked. I'm planning on redeeming the grass this fall when I can do something major about the weeds. Until then, we'll look a little white trash.

While it was raining, we started some tomato plants inside. We spent so much money on dirt and wood, that I couldn't justify buying real grow lamps, so we're making do with this. We had three under-counter lamps (that plugged into the wall), so I pulled them out (I didn't like them taking plug and other space) and stacked them on top of jars. The bulbs are only 15 watts each, but my little tomatoes seem to be happy so far.

I'm planning on planting peas, lettuce, carrots, radishes, and kohlrabi in the backyard on Monday morning. We've also got a larger plot behind the church, so we'll be planting other veggies there--things that need space like watermelons, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and more of the regular veggies.

I promise pictures as we go.