As you may recall from previous blog posts, gardening has not really been my thing. The first year, I was overly optimistic and embarrassingly confident. The next year, I made a pitiful effort to try again but was defeated by extreme heat, voracious slugs, and a general distaste for all the hard work a garden requires. After that fiasco, I decided maybe gardening just wasn’t for me.
But we’re trying again this year because I have a new trick up my sleeve. Sean is here now, and his mere presence has been motivating us to complete all sorts of projects we were too lazy and disheartened to finish before. He’s like a wizard that way.
We have four raised beds in the backyard, and each one was once divided into 16 squares. (Remember that I started off using the Square Foot Gardening method. Some of the wooden slats separating the squares may or may not have been removed or damaged in my gardening-induced fits of rage. People say gardening is relaxing; maybe I’m not doing it right.)
We have four in our family now, so each one of us chose a garden bed to call our own. I chose the one overgrown with evil mint because I’m a good mommy.
The most ambitious among us, Eve chose 16 different plants for her 16 squares. The most interesting of her bunch are peanuts. I’ve heard they can be tricky to grow, but I’m hopeful; if anyone can do it, she can. I chose to grow four squares each of four plants I know we’ll eat: butternut squash, tomatoes, carrots, and strawberries. Michael is growing several varieties of tomatoes, melons, and some flowers. Sean’s picks are the most varied, including tabasco peppers (tabasco sauce is his #1 food staple), naranjillas, and kiwanorund melons, which are supposed to taste like a cross between lemons and bananas.
It’s February, so the only thing we have to do for the garden right now is sow the few seeds that need to be started indoors several weeks before the last frost. Sean has all the early starters, so he’s in charge of the garden for the moment. Which means everything’s going just fine.
The Land of Silk & Honey 
Some gardeners work best alone, some work best with others. You may have found your method!
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I have always failed at gardening too, hence my cement backyard. I anxiously await the results of your efforts!
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I love Bakers Creek!!! Great seeds and great variety.
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Happy Gardening. I hope you are blessed with the fruits( veggies, herbs) of your labor, each of you.
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Haha that reminds me of my early years in gardening… but that’s the thing as gardening is all about trial and error 🙂 early on I had it in my head that I had to water veggies every single day… let’s just say my onions hated that and just went to mush! It’s a journey and that’s why I find it fun… the strange weather we’ve had in Oregon over the past few years has been interesting, learning how to deal with two extraordinarily dry springs in a row where we got our worst heat in June instead of August was definitely a challenge. But at the same time while our tomatoes were suffering we also grew okra in abundance, something that’s not traditionally grown in this area! 🙂
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How fun to grow something new! How did the okra turn out? Our “unusual” plant for this year is peanuts, and they just started to pile their heads out of the dirt yesterday.
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The okra turned out amazing in the dry two years that we grew them… Three feet high and I really didn’t care if I harvested the actual okra as the flowers were just so pretty on them (kind of like what happens to me with artichokes)… But we’ve had an abnormally rainy spring this year, which gives little chance for longer season crops like sweet potatoes and okra 😦 someday we will have a greenhouse!
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