Anyway... Last summer Sean and I kind of let the backyard go to pot. We, um, saved money and water by not watering the lawn. Yeah, that's right, we, umm, didn't water to help the environment and to conserve water.... Ok. You can stop laughing and rolling your eyes at me now! This year is a different story! Thanks to the magic of living in Oregon, nature watered our lawn for us during the fall... and winter... and spring... so then we were back in business with tall, green grass. A month or so ago we spent most of the morning and early afternoon of a Saturday
outside doing yardwork and cleaning up our back yard. We're talking lots and lots of weeding, tilling the garden beds and clearing away a clover patch at the edge of the lawn. And then uncle Tory came over and mowed for us. Unfortunately our grass wasn't quite as healthy as we originally thought once it was trimmed. Oh well, it was still better than last year. As you can see, Ethan thoroughly enjoyed playing outside all day. He was in hog heaven with his dump truck just sitting in the dirt!
We have now planted a small garden: 2 roma tomato plants and 1 slicing tomato plant (all are starting to have blossoms and we even have a few little green tomatoes!!), 1 cucumber and 1 jalapeno. I also planted a bunch of flower seeds under one of the dining room windows, but the soil there has a lot of clay in it so we'll see if anything comes up. I'd still like to plant a bell pepper and some lettuce, but I'm not sure if we have the room. Still, it is a start! I also got some annuals planted in pots on our patio. Our biggest problem two years ago when we planted a garden and flowers was remembering to water. This year, we knew of our bad habits so we specifically put the flower pots on the far corner of the patio so that when we put the sprinkler in the middle of the yard and turn it up high enough it waters the lawn, the garden and the flowers!!
So here are our before pictures... monster weeds and all!
Lush, green grass... wasn't so lush and green once it was mowed.
The garden beds before they were weeded are the pictures above and below. Pretty scary, huh?
Nope, this isn't a tree sapling, it's huge weed! What looks like a thick trunk and branches, are actually hollow and flimsy.
And some after pictures with the garden, flowers and lack of weeds:
The tomatoes... I can't wait!
Cucumber... we call it "Ethan's cucumber" because he eats more cucumber slices than anyone in the family!
Jalapeno. Fresh, homemade pico de gallo here we come!
And some of the annuals we planted. Have had a hard time this year with snails. Grrr.... stop eating my flowers!!I can no appreciate why people love to garden so much! It's not a number one hobby for me, but it has definitely moved up quite a few spots on my list. There's just something very satisfying about growing your own yummy veggies... especially when you grow things you know your family likes to eat! I check on my little garden ever day now and I can't wait until we really start to get a harvest.
Don't you just love this face?!
5 comments:
gardens are fun. Like you said especially when it is your own. I think is might be fun to have one but i think im in the same boat of not weeding and making sure it gets watered. (i somtimes have a hard time watering the two plants that I have)
Good for you!!
Great job! I don't mind weeding, I just think of it as getting a good workout. I often let my weeds go for a while and after my weeding parties I hurt so good. Recently, I've sprayed my weeds with roundup. If you use it on a regular basis and get the weeds when they're small, it really helps to keep them under control. However, you can't use it in vegetable gardens. I planted some plants also, and when I went out today, three of my squash plants had all the leaves eaten off. They only had the stem left. My neighbor said the snails probably got them.
Oopsy. I thought I HAD commented. Since I'm at work I'll keep it really short. If you water your weed patch it makes it easier to weed. (Not when it's sopping wet of course)
Looks like you guys put in some hard work. I wish we lived in a place where we could plant, but someday I guess. I agree with there being something fulfilling about planting a garden and harvesting your own veggies. We used to do it all the time growing up.
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