Things are Looking Up!

I finally finished the fence around the garden a couple of days ago. I haven’t noticed any animal related activity in the garden since then. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this holds true and the fence holds up. The only bad thing is that the fence is about belly button high. I’m going to have to either figure out how to high jump over the top or use a step stool to get in there. I thought about building a gate into the fence but I read that could be a weak point and become a point of entry for pests. I figure if I have a hard time getting in, the critters will too.

Now that my garden has a defense from pests, I went ahead and planted more seeds. I currently only have two watermelon plants and three cucumber plants that are doing well. I planted more watermelon and cucumber and also carrots and red peppers. I’m choosing to remain optimistic and look forward to a bounty of fresh fruits and veggies in the next several weeks.

My next steps are to add fertilizer to the garden to boost growth and continue watering daily. Before we hit the summer heat, I was only watering every other day. Between daily watering and the multiple rainstorms we had last week, I’ve noticed a big difference.

I admit I got pretty down about the state of the garden after the week of neglect. I thought about quitting and just trying again next year. But I’m pushing forward so we’ll see what happens. With the World Cup finally over, I’ll have fewer distractions. And fewer things to blame when I screw up.

Take a look at the current state of the garden below.

Long view of the nearly bare garden

Long view of the nearly bare garden

Completed garden with fence

Completed garden with fence

Picking and Planting Seeds

So I picked out the garden box I wanted, built it and filled it with dirt. With a lot of the initial labor done, I needed to figure out what I want to grow. I thought the easiest thing would be to plant things I eat regularly. People who know me know that I love my carrots! (I usually have one Bugs Bunny style for lunch every day.) Carrots went on the list along with lettuce, cucumbers and watermelon. When I was looking at the rack of seed packets, those seemed pretty easy to grow. I also picked out green beans but  I didn’t realize until I got home that they needed to grow on a trellis or next to a fence. Another project for another time. I didn’t want to get overwhelmed, so I stuck with those basic four.

Digging hills for gardening rows

Digging hills for gardening rows

I asked SJ to help me plant because I’m still not entirely sure what I’m doing. The instructions said to build hills and plant seeds an inch or two down. I didn’t know how to get hills out of my flat soil, so I was just going to drop seeds in the dirt until SJ suggested building the dirt into mounds. The light bulb went off. That made perfect sense! And not too difficult either.

Out came the shovel to dig rows and create nice even rows. I was going to originally do four rows but went with three because the watermelons needed extra space. I took advantage of the smaller 4′ X 4′ box for the cucumbers.

By the time I was done digging and arranging rows, things were looking pretty good. SJ and I planted the seeds according to the instructions. There aren’t any pictures of him because he said his main jobs were to look good and take pictures. Thanks SJ!

After a couple of weeks of work, the seeds are in. The only thing left to do is wait for the veggies to start growing.

Finished garden with veggies planted

Finished garden with veggies planted

Planting the vegetables

Planting the vegetables