How Does Your Garden Grow?

I've wanted to post this for about 2 months now, but here it is June 18th and I can officially say I have a garden - YEAH!!!

Obviously, I'm getting a late start, but the problem was I had a jungle gym in the only sunny, flat piece of my property, which added significant time to the project. Once the jungle gym was gone, then I had to deal with the fact that I had an 18" deep gravel pit. After contemplating various options for removing it, I finally just decided it was good drainage and the garden would have to go on top.

Now, I have 2 raised beds built with concrete blocks - nothing bad seeping into the soil and they should last forever. The soil is the special veggie soil from Cedar Grove - as my kids said, "It smells awful" so I figure it must have all the good nutrients. I will confess I didn't build them myself - the blocks are 60 pounds apiece and, as you can see from the picture, it took a lot of them!

I am a complete novice at this, but happy to be experimenting. I have one bed for warm season vegetables and one for cool season vegetables. Altogether, I have corn, snow peas, peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, potatoes, lettuce, onions, green onions, carrots, parsnips, basil, thyme, and oregano. I also have some zucchini and pumpkins, but they didn't fit into the beds. I figure they both grow well and need lots of space so I planted them where they would have more room.

It was fun planning and planting with the kids and now I'm looking forward to harvesting later this summer. All we need is SUNSHINE!

The Vegetable Experiment - Part I

The three-bite rule.
The no-thank you bite.
The shred-it-and-hide-it-in-the-sauce trick.

In my quest to get a morsel of vegetable into my seven-year-old's tummy, I have tried all of the above and more - everything from patiently waiting ("let the child decide when he's ready to eat the vegetable") to bribing with dessert - I know it's not recommended, but it does work sometimes...

I suppose I can't complain. He happily eats peas and corn, although a fellow mom in the same shoes pointed out to me that corn hardly qualifies - it's kind of like counting french fries as a vegetable. Although he will suffer through 1 baby carrot, 1 green bean, 1 broccoli stem, or 1 forkful of lettuce, the offending vegetable must first be drowned in either parmesan cheese or ranch dip. I'm not sure its worth it based on the microscopic amount of vegetable he actually ingests on these occasions.


My new plan is The Vegetable Experiment. Let him plant the vegetables, let him watch them grow, let him care for them, let him eat them. OK, I realize that the final step may be a complete bust. The mom I mentioned above said she is on her 3rd garden and her son's vast vegetable palate is still limited to salsa and tomato sauce.

Regardless, we're plunging forward. The seeds have been planted and they are now growing in Stephen's room where they can get a warm and sunny start. He was thrilled to see them pop up on Day 1 (to be honest, as the neophyte gardener that I am, I was quite surprised) and now thinks on Day 4 that they've outgrown their peat pellets. I'm voting for a little longer inside.

Is he going to eat the vegetables? I have no idea, but I figure we'll benefit in other ways - fresh organic vegetables that did not have to be trucked across the country or shipped around the world to make it to our table. While I would love it if he would try something new, I'm vowing to just enjoy the process. If all goes well with the garden, at least I'll have yummy veggies to eat this summer!