Green Thumb

This is the first summer in our married life that we have had a yard. This has brought lots of fun and joy as the kids have been able to jump on the tramp, swing & slide, run through sprinklers, play soccer and bocce and numerous other things. It has also brought back responsibilities that Jeff happily handed off to his brothers and dad 20 years ago, such as mowing the lawn. Jeff has had to trim hedges, rose bushes, and practice his edging skills. Knowing he had all of this responsibility he was supportive, but somewhat hesitant when I started pursuing the vegetable garden idea. It was me who had to encourage the seed buying and me who had to push to get the soil ready. Yet Jeff was supportive and helped me in the end. The kids were extremely excited to dig in the dirt and were very helpful.

Well, to an extent. After about 10 minutes or so they went back to playing with their bikes.

After prepping the soil and getting everything we needed, we were able to plant everything on May 7th. Having had no experience with gardening before we decide to try the seed thing but also get some starts. Emily was loved dropping the seeds in the holes and was very good with helping.

We took a break after a little bit to get out of the sun. After snapping a few pictures Emily insisted on taking one of mommy & daddy. We were hesitant at first to hand over the camera. A small digital not that big a deal. But a nice SLR that is still counting for my Mother's Day & Christmas presents was a different story. But she was able to handle it ok and the picture didn't turn out too bad. She really liked the zooming, can you tell?

So here is our garden after planting it and then some close ups at 5 weeks.

So along with the vegetable garden I wanted to try my hand at the flower beds. Dave & Arline fortunately gave their blessing and I went to work. I pulled out the horribly snail infested perennials that were there. Then the following Saturday Jeff helped me widen the flower bed by pulling up some of the grass. Seeing that we were going to be working in the yard the kids quickly grapped their work gloves and came to join. And of course when they saw a shovel was involved they had to step right in and help. I have since planted some new pernnials but failed to get a picture while they were all still blooming. I'm hoping that next year will find them spread out and even bigger. And maybe I can add a few more as well. But unfortunately I couldn't justify any more money on flowers this year.