Garden Planning

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Honey

garden grow

Our garden is a mess.

The main play area is a mud pit that you could wrestle in every time it rains (and for days afterwards).

My desire is for a functional veggie garden, a fun play area, but overall, I just want something that will be pleasant for the eyes. Jonah and I have been discussing the yard and trying to figure out the cheapest, quickest, and most creative ways to make it useful again. We have lots of ideas and we will be making some decisions soon (which I will share with you).

I found this amazing pallet garden today while I was checking my email and it inspired me again to get creative with my yard.

How is your garden growing?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Honey

Are you doing a garden this year? We are going to make an effort to do a garden again this year. It has been hit and miss since the twins were born, but they might just be able to understand it this year (they are turning 3 in May).

I thought it would be super fun to do a garden where the kids can participate fully and I don't care to much if it gets destroyed. At least we'll start there and see how far we get. Five kids, small backyard, lots of mud... could be fun?

One of my main goals besides getting things planted that we can actually eat will be to make the backyard look a little prettier. We had the addition of the unsightly heat pump and the rearranging of the garden beds which resulted in a mud pit (which desperately needs more grass seed). We can't have flowers in the backyard (but we will in the front) due to the discovery that Zion is deathly allergic to bees.

So, all of that to say that while I was wandering around the web recently, I discovered this blog post at Homeschool Java about the HSV Garden Challenge. Since my mind has been on what to do this year for the garden, I had to head over there and read all about their challenge.

We will be hitting the garden very soon (maybe as early as this week if the weather holds out) and I thought it would be nice to have a place to share and get encouragement.

I was also reminded about the Inadvertent Farmer and her kinderGardens posts from last year because I followed from afar via Dawn at 5 Kids and a Dog.

This year I hope to do more than just watch other people play in their dirt. I want to roll up my sleeves (okay, I wear short sleeves) and get my hands dirty (which, oddly, I really enjoy). I hope you will join us as we try to grow some edibles and pretty up our backyard this spring and summer.

So tell me, how does your garden grow?

PS - Check out this awesome resource Gardening 101 and Spring Spruce Up

Major Changes to the Garden

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Honey

We discovered a few weeks ago that our son Zion is allergic to bees (Around the Brown House) and we had to rethink our garden. Here are some before pictures. The back row is beans, which are way bigger now, and in front of the beans are a few random tomatoes. The right hand corner is rhubarb, which we have picked down to nothing at least 3 times now. The right hand side is peas that are finally growing.

The center section in the rock circle was flowers because it was impossible to weed or pick vegetables in there. Around the rock circle we had lettuce, swiss chard, kale, spinach and other leafy greens for salads and stir fries. There are also a couple of pumpkins that came up all on their own.

This picture is of the left corner of the garden by the gate. There used to be a big rock garden of mostly shade plants, but it was moved.

Here are some pictures of the garden after we made the big changes. This is the left hand corner by the back gate. The rock garden was moved back slightly and is more compact now, but looks great.

Along the back fence our beans are still growing and they are actually 2 feet above the top of the fence now. In front of the beans we moved the pumpkins and the salad greens (lettuce, spinach, etc) and planted them among the random tomatoes that are growing.

On the right hand side along the fence we still have peas, but in front of them, we now have swiss chard and kale.

Now, let me explain what was going on in our heads when we made the changes.

We discovered Zion is highly allergic to bees (and needed to remove the flower garden.
We had a heat pump installed in our backyard that took up way too much space.
We had kids constantly stepping on the veggies.
We were originally going to put our big plastic sandbox boat in the center of the dirt.
We needed more room to play.

After much discussion and tossing around of ideas, it has been decided that the big muddy area will be grass. We discussed seed verses turf and the seed won because it is cheaper and easier to transport without a vehicle.

We already have the grass seed, but we are trying to figure out the best time to plant it. Do you have any ideas?

Planting The Garden

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Honey

Work began this week in our little Urban Sensory Garden.

Jonah (my husband) dug the pathway up and rebuilt the little rock border. He tilled all the dirt and made the garden ready for planting. Our garden is very small. What you see in these pictures is all of the garden. There is about that much space again that is a big slab of cement. On the cement slab (so becoming of a sensory garden) there is a large plastic boat that used to be a sandbox but is now filled with outside toys.

There is also a rabbit hutch that is home to our bunny and our guinea pig. Yes, we know they are not supposed to live together, but such is life. The guinea pig came from a home where he was housed with a bunny and the bunny came from a home where he was housed with a guinea pig. So, they live together and seem to enjoy each other's company.

Okay, back to the garden...

I sorted through the seeds and put away the ones that won't be planted this year. I separated the seeds into flowers and vegetables (in hindsight, the kids could have done this). Jonah planted the center area, right in the middle of the rock circle, where the lone flower is. This area will all be flowers. It is the only area that we cannot reach to harvest from, so we need to plant things that don't need to much work.

The rest of the week has been filled with rain and we have enjoyed the garden from the inside. We hope to get back out again on the first sunny (or even dry) day to do the rest of our planting.

Yes, I do realize that we are very late getting our garden into the ground this year, but the weather has been so cold until now. We are usually still picking beans into late November, so we probably have a fighting chance at getting some produce.

What is growing in your garden?