Garden time (May 09)

In May, we took on a large project with a few of our neighbors. We used some recycled lumber that our neighbor was able to get when his son's apartment complex tore off their old decks to build new ones. This old lumber was perfect for our project, 3 large garden boxes. We spent several hours constructing them and hauling dirt to fill them.

Then the fun part began. Planting! I had a great time going to the nursery to pick out seedlings and seeds. Josh and the kids had an exercise in patience that evening. It was so hard to decide what I wanted. However, I came home with several pepper plants, a couple eggplants, a zucchini, onion starters, carrot seeds, green onion seeds, parsley, basil, mint, and brace yourself, 14 tomato plants. Yes, I went a little tomato happy. I didn't realize until later how much one tomato plant could actually produce! We were swimming in tomatoes. It is unfortunate that I am the only one who really LOVES tomatoes. Josh will eat them in things to some extent. Kiera took a liking to some of the smaller, sweeter tomatoes. Aiden will rarely eat tomato on anything. We had many, many grape tomatoes, and since they looked like grapes, and were so pretty and red, Owen would always beg for one, always spitting it right back out as soon as he took a bite. We will be planting far fewer tomatoes next year!

Here are pictures of the family getting down and dirty in the garden. The kids enjoyed helping me over the summer, even though they really didn't have a choice. It was a ritual each and every day to go down and check the garden. What fun we had! Can't wait to do it again next summer!