i started a garden

This is a big feat for me! we did a garden about 7 years ago, but we didn't do the right way, we did it the lazy, unplanned, spur of the moment way and needless to say, it didn't turn out :) we tilled it but we didn't take off the sod first, just tilled the grass back into the dirt......so yeah, we grew a great crop of grass!


This year, we are in our new house and we don't have the finances yet to landscape the yard and i have this small patch of dirt in the front, between the front walkway up to the porch and the driveway, it is like a curved triangle. Let me see if i have a picture. Aha, here we go:

It is actually bigger than it looks here, weird camera angle or something. Dh and i both love homegrown tomatoes and i love bell peppers and they have gotten outageous expensive lately. So, we planted both of those here in this garden area along with some basil (good for tomatoes) and italian parsley (love to use this!!) and of course marigold's!

I was just out weeding the "garden", and i noticed that one tomato plant has a bud on it, and one of my pepper plants has a bud that has bloomed with about four more almost ready!!! See, this is why i am not the greatest of the gardener...1), i hate to weed when it gets out of control. 2) i don't like to sweat and here in Oklahoma it gets HOT in the summer and 3) i am IMPATIENT! i planted this garden on April 21 and i want my tomatoes and peppers NOW :)

I will take pictures of my "garden" as soon as i get my camera back from my dad...oh wait. it is HIS camera, not mine :)

Also, i got so much great advise from my dh's grandparent's, who live about 2 miles from us. They have had gardens all their lives and are a fountain of knowledge when it comes to this. But, their health is not what it used to be and even though grandpa loves to be outdoors there isn't much he can do. he tries to mow the yard and makes himself very sick. I guess my asking all my questions and wanting advise from them both gave them a hankerin' for a garden of their own again but said the only thing stopping them was the stooping over and bending down; they can't do that any more. So, my hubby got to planning and thinking on this a while.

He went out and looked over the lumbar we have left over from the house. he built them a raised bed, up on cement blocks that hits grandpa at his waist. it has drainage and we lined the bottom with a bunch of rocks and the we used our dirt pile (top soil) to fill in the bed along with 10 backs of store bought top soil an 8 bags of manure. this raised bed is 16 inches deep and is 10 x 4. We didn't tell granpa or grandma what we were doing, we just took it over to them one night and oh my, it was the greatest! dh went and set it up after grandpa picked where he wanted it and then we went to work filling it. it took two pickup loads of our dirt and then we all got in there and mixed in the bags of stuff. I tell you what, it was like watching a little boy in a sand box; grandpa was just like that. his eyes were just gleaming and he was so amazed. words just can't express how wonderful it was for him. he was planning on what he was gonna plant right then and there, while working his hands through the soil.....tomatoes, peppers, okra for sure they decided.

We have decided that we will make some for ourselves next year. I am thinking this will be great for us as it the weeds won't be near as bad as in a garden on the ground where grass and such can get blown into it easier.

we took some pictures with grandma's camera but they aren't developed yet. as soon as they are, i will post some on here.