Gardening 101

Posted On September 3, 2012

I have just enough knowledge to be ridiculously overconfident in my gardening abilities.

A year and a half ago my school was the first garden planted as part of Miracle Grow’s Gro100

I watched pretty carefully to see everything the experts did to help us get our garden started and I remember thinking at the time, please God just let something grow here. I was skeptical. I had never successfully grown anything from seeds. Lo and behold about 6 weeks later we had corn stalks taller than most of the students, sun flowers close to 13 feet tall and okra, radishes, peppers, tomates and beans. It was nothing short of amazing to watch everything grow. I think that’s when I decided I had to do this too but we needed to wait until we moved since it would be silly to put that much work into something that couldn’t come with us.

So this was the weekend. Labor day. Very appropriate.

2H5A1979 copy — The boys sawed the wood for the raised garden bed.

2H5A1982 copy — What I mean to say is, A cut the wood while Andrew covered his ears.

2H5A1995 copy — The raised bed ready for filling.

We decided to build a raised bed because of what I’ve learned about how this can keep pests away. We decided to grow an organic garden using organic soil and organic seeds. We are also using Marigolds to help keep pests away. It seems silly to do all this only to douse it with bug spray.

Somewhere in this process we went to Lowes and got 8 bags of organic soil for our planter which is 3 feet by 6 feet by 1 foot. It was just the right amount of soil. We also picked up carrot seeds, bean seeds, tomato plants, sunflower seeds, and marigolds. Oh and a hose and nozzle because the hose we have in the front doesn’t reach all the way to the back.

2H5A2002 copy — Andrew and Daddy fill up the garden bed.

2H5A2016 copy — Andrew was extraordinary excited about getting to play with dirt.

Then we called it a day because it was bed time and still insanely hot out.

2H5A2026 copy — Allison got a cool ride on the “trek to the back yard”.

2H5A2028 copy — Can you see the horses in the distance? They’re not ours but they belong to our neighbors.

2H5A2041 copy — Andrew helps Daddy put the trellis in place. Hopefully the beans will grow up the trellis.

2H5A2049 copy — We got started planting while Allison cheered us on.

2H5A2051 copy — Allison is bummed she can’t play in the dirt too!

2H5A2066 copy — Planting the tomatoes

Planting the carrot seeds!

2H5A2076 copy — Planting the tomatoes

Planting the carrot seeds!

2H5A2103 copy — Andrew lined up the beans along the side of the bed so he could put in 3 at a time. We’ll count this as his division lesson for the day!

2H5A2105 copy — And…. VOILA!! All done. Now we wait.

We added “Water the garden” to Andrew’s chore chart so it will be his job to remember. I think this is a good job for him because he is more likely to get the job done than we are if we didn’t have someone to remind us. I think we should see sprouts in a week or two. I can’t wait to see his expression when he sees that things are starting to grow! We still haven’t planted the sunflowers yet and we are planning to put in 2-3 blueberry plants as well. We have a blueberry farm about 1/2 a mile up the road and they grow really well around here so hopefully we will have some yummy fresh fruits and veggies very soon!

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