Raising Maidens: Veggie Tales

A month or two ago I mentioned that we were going to try our hands at gardening, and that is exactly what we have been doing! This is mainly David's project, and he has done an amazing job with it. For starters, he cleared out the entire back area "garden" which was composed of concrete cylinders, scraps of metal, nails, random plants (mostly weeds), and a LOT of dry, dry, dry dirt. It's still a work in progress, but it looks SO much better out there than it did when we first moved in! Our neighbor even told us that our yard used to have not one but THREE shopping carts in it!! Maybe that gives you a small idea of the condition the outside of the house was in at one point haha (Thankfully the inside is beautiful because our landlord's maintenance guy had been renovating from August - December).
Well, our garden area is beginning to shape up a bit and we are loving seeing new life rising from the previously dead ground! David used his mad skills to create a boxed-off area from the rest of the yard, and then on his hands and knees picked out ALL the rocks from the dry dirt inch by inch! Then he added some fresh compost (and made his own compost pit on the other half of the garden to prep the soil for more plants to grow later). After less than a month, all the plants are thriving! I'll let the pictures tell you more about how everything is doing :)

Early March after we had just planted the snap peas (and transplanted the parsley, chives, & thyme)

10 days later- the snap peas have sprouted and are looking so cute!

And the beans 10 days later - already huge!

We have had so much fun watching the sprouts as they get bigger and bigger - they seriously can grow an inch in a day!!! We have also planted peppers and broccoli, but those are not supposed to sprout for several weeks, so no news on those yet.

As a family, it's been a joy to have the garden to work on together. It's become a morning routine for Ryenne to be out in the garden with Daddy watering the garden and all the potted plants. She loves it (and so does David). We are so looking forward to the day where we can eat fresh veggies straight from the garden! We have already been able to use the parsley, chives, and thyme in a few different things - mostly omelettes which are one of David's specialities ;)

Well, here is a look at our little garden as of today! Less than a month after we had done most of the planting!
Thanks for reading, and let us know if YOU have any gardening tips or are growing anything new!
Love,
The Graefs