Digging in Dirt

Here's a little "Before and After" of our garden out back!

BEFORE

When we moved in, our landlord told us that a previous tenant had put in a garden bed along the side of the shed, and that we could feel free to redo that if we wanted a garden. We did. So during the crazy couple of weeks before Riley started school, while we were still jumping over boxes to get through rooms in our house, we decided to take advantage of Riley's manpower and dig up the garden bed!

I am sure glad we did, because the garden turned out to be the former home to probably 20 rosebushes who had long since withered and left their gnarly root balls for us to remove... what a project!! 

We dug and loosened and sifted and fertilized, poured sweat, blood, and tears (well, no tears, really) into our little garden bed, and after some very hard work in the hot Summer sun, we had created something to be proud of!!

AFTER

We widened, lengthened, and then lined the garden bed with some rocks we gathered from Riley's beloved grandmother's farm. (So special to have a touch of her in our garden. I hear she had quite the green thumb!) 

I got right to work transplanting strawberry bushes and flowers I had in pots, and sowing a variety of vegetables for a fall crop! We have broccoli, radishes, two varieties of carrots, green beans, peas, spinach and spring mix all popping out of the ground. It's really so fun! And on the far right side I've sectioned off the "boys' garden," where they may feel free to dig and play and not worry about destroying our crop! 

My little garden helpers!

This is our first home with a space to dig and plant in the ground, and it really is so much fun. And this lovely little space is the view from my kitchen window. I'm so very thankful.

And, thanks to a motion-activated sprinkler I got on clearance at Walmart, the deer and rabbits are leaving my plants alone! 

Happy gardening!

(And likewise, happy scrubbing-the-dirt-from-your-fingernails!)

:)