Around this time last year, we had just moved into this house with a two-year-old and a six-day-old baby and had very little time or energy to get ourselves a garden in the ground. We haphazardly planted three tomato plants in the flower bed at the front of the house and we were shocked to see them grow to monstrous proportions. (Seriously, the biggest one was taller than my five-foot-tall frame by a good six inches.)

This year, we finally have settled in and made friends with the neighbors, who seem not to have minded the odd sight of the tomato monsters eating the front of our house too much. Due to a grove of very large and very lovely oak trees behind our house, we get very little direct sun and decided that the prime real estate for a garden was not, in fact, in our yard at all. So my husband moseyed on over to the neighbor's house and asked if she'd be willing to lend us some of her land for a decent sized garden plot. I'm not sure she knew what she was getting into when she said yes. But she did say yes, so a few months later, we had a rather large portion tilled up and set to planting!

Initially, we attempted to start some seeds indoors and planted tomatoes, peppers, spinach, broccoli, and a variety of herbs. Out of our initial seeds, the tomatoes and the peppers are the only ones who survived. Next year we're going to attempt a more elaborate seed starting system and rig up some grow lights. Disappointing, but it was a worthy effort.

This year, we purchased a veritable truckload of vegetables, herbs, fruits and melons for a buck a plant at a local garden center.

My husband and three-year-old daughter, Bean, dubbed themselves the head planters and got their tools together to get the plants into the ground. My husband's tool of choice: a small hand shovel. My daughter's: a paintbrush. To each, their own.


Our initial batch of plants include a variety of tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, habaneros, wax peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, peas, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, crookneck squash, strawberries, okra, (which we may have killed already), and cucumbers. We're hoping to get some green beans in the ground soon as well as some more unusual varieties of tomatoes and squash.


We're not sure what to expect this year. It's not the best soil in the world, and we're by no means master gardeners. (As for the soil, we do have two Earth Machine compost bins that we're hoping will yield some fantastic compost for use next year, but for now, it's just the dirt under the grass that we're dealing with.) But whatever the outcome, we're having a delightful time trying our hand at growing our own food.

Jen also blogs at the fabulous Rolling Through Looneyville. Welcome to Gardenaut, Jen!