The beds

After pouring over gardening books and blogs, we decided to go with cinder blocks instead of the traditional wood to construct our beds. We did this for a number of reasons: First, there was no building involved. With three crazy kids that love to "help" do everything, finding time to build projects is no small feat. Second, finding untreated lumber for the beds proved to be a bit difficult; and we didn't want to have to replace the wood once it rotted. Third, cinder blocks are inexpensive - each one cost less than $1.50. That was sufficient enough for my frugal-ness! There are many other advantages to using cinder blocks rather than wood as well, but there's no need to go into them here.

So, off to the big box store to purchase the blocks we went. As we drive a minivan, it was essential for us to also rent the store's truck to haul them home. Boy, are those blocks heavy! After lots of loading and unloading, (most of which was done by Cullen), we finally got our beds set up. Don't they look great?!

 

The beds!

Next step was to fill them with dirt. We bought 2 cubic yards of planting mix from our wonderful local organic gardening store, Fresh Start Growers' Supply. The guys there are a wealth of knowledge, and very helpful. They delivered the dirt and dumped it in the driveway. I resisted the urge to roll in it.

 

That's a lot of dirt!

 

Cullen did all the work to haul the soil to the back yard beds, while I was inside on kid-duty. It was a cold, dreary day; the kids and I were content to stay in the house while Cullen did manual labor. Once the beds were filled, we then measured each foot and marked it with string. Because the 12-inch mark didn't meet up with the intersections of the cinder blocks, we struggled to find a way to keep the string in place. I'm nothing if not resourceful; I got some bobby pins from the bathroom and used them to stick the string in the ground outside of the blocks. It worked like a charm. Just call me MacGyver!

 



 

(We will be planting companion flowers in the holes of the blocks)

Next step, get seeds planted in this glorious soil! Hurry up, warm(er) weather - we're ready for you!

--Autumn

 

Seed Starting Sucess...then death.

In late January, I went to a "potting party" at a locally owned garden supply store. There, I was able to gain knowledge of seed starting (which has never been successfull for me), and came home with four trays of organic seeds. These trays included spinach, swiss chard, kale, red lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower. I was so excited to see them start growing!

 (three days after planting!)

                                                           
We purchased a few grow lights, as our home doesn't have enough sun through the windows to get seeds growing. Our whole family delighted in seeing the progress from day to day...

(12 days after planting)

(22 days after planting)

(35 days after planting)

 

 At this point, it was warm enough to start hardening off the plants --- so, we took them outside on a lovely sunny day...and then forgot to bring them in at night. Needless to say, they died. Instantly. As in, one day they were big and beautiful, and the next day the stems were limp and translucent. I was sick. Sick! My first ever successful attempt at seed starting ended overnight because I neglected to bring the plants in overnight. 96 plants...gone. ACK! But --- the time I spent at the "potting party" workshop was totally worth it, even if my plants did die. I was able to enjoy the company of my best friend (hereby called "bestie") and alone time from my kiddos for a few hours on the weekend. So all was certainly not lost! Though our plants died, we bought seeds to replace them; and I sure had fun, despite the tragic death of our seedlings...duh duh duh...

 

--Autumn

 

 

Welcome!

Hello!

Welcome to our Yarden --- a place where we grow our vegetables --- in the midst of toys, play structures, wildlife, and general chaos. I should start with introductions...I am Autumn, wife to Cullen (who you'll hear more from soon), and mama to three children: two boys, ages 6 and 3, and one girl, age 9 months.

Gardening has been a love of mine for several years; however, I have been the only participant. This year, my husband of 10 years has taken an active role in my passion. We are now working together to make the most of the little land we have to work with. We live in the middle of a small, but bustling, city, and own about 1/4 acre of land. I have always been a row gardener, as that is what I grew up with. This year, however, is an experimental year. Given our small space to work with and the fact that our garden has had some difficulty in the past few years, we decided to try our hand at raised beds and square foot gardening.

We are looking forward to blogging our progress, successes, and failures.

--Autumn