This year, our park district is doing a community garden. For $20, you can buy yourself a nice-sized plot of land (20 feet X 20 feet) in what used to be a corn field…which just so happens to be located behind the elementary school in our subdivision (ie: within walking distance from our house). When I heard about the garden, I thought it sounded like fun…something different to do in the summer besides play in the front yard, play in the back yard, go to the pool, repeat. I also thought it would be a great experience for the boys. Brian was all over the idea and has subsequently taken us to a WHOLE new level of gardening. We now own a grow light, a couple heated mini green-house things, a soil tester do-hicky and a bunch of other stuff. We have maps (mostly drawn by the two of us in crayons…see pictures), graphs printed from gardening sites and seed packets by the dozens. We started a bunch of seeds in late March which have now, miraculously, turned into little plants!

The first day we had access to our plots was this past Saturday. Soccer and a birthday party precluded us from gardening that day, but we went out for a couple hours on Sunday to get everything set up (well…first we went to Menards for supplies like Peat Moss, Mushroom Compost <—which the boys were thrilled to hear contained poop cause that’s just too funny, and weed control stuff…OH and mini gloves and little gardening shovels for the boys – so cute!)

March 20th: Seed Planting

Here is one of the two mini greenhouses we now own (you plug them in and the seed tray sits on top of a little heating pad). FYI: We have the right of first refusal on our plot for next year (which means it’s ours unless we don’t want it) so we’re hoping all this investment pays off in years to come…but also, it’s super fun!

Some of the first seeds we started: squash, lots of different tomatoes, habanera peppers, jalapenos, cucumbers etc. We have since added some herbs and other things…I’m not even quite sure anymore to be honest with you. I keep finding flats of seedlings everywhere…only Brian knows at this point :)

Step one: water the planting disks until they turn from these little coin-looking things into puffy mini planting pods.

Here is my colorful and visually helpful ;) chart of what we planted on day one.

3 Days Later: March 23rd

May 25th: Look at the Progress our little seeds made in a month!

Brian also purchased a grow light (based on the advice of a co-worker who is a very serious gardener…one who starts his seeds in the middle of the winter!) We kept the grow light and the seedlings in the basement for most of the month, but moved them upstairs last week so they could start getting natural light and also so that we could take them outside for a few hours a day to harden them. I am happy to report that our little babies stayed out all day today (I just brought them in before dark)…such progress! (sniff sniff…they grow up so fast, don’t they…ok…I’m done with the jokes…I think…)

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…and now my kitchen counter-top is a giant garden area. It’s all good…

Brian took to the crayon box and plotted out where we will be planting. We have also researched canning…on the off chance that all our plants actually survive and make vegetables!

Sunday, May 2nd: Garden Prep Day

Step one: a picnic lunch garden-side. I made sure to pick a plot on the outside of the whole gardening area so that the boys can run crazy in the field and not bother anyone (plus the elementary school playground is quite close as well). On Sunday, there weren’t too many people there, but I don’t want them wandering around the plots once everything starts growing so it’s best to have room to move

It’s hard to see, but here is our plot. This BIG area (which is not all in the picture) makes up 8 plots. In the distance, you can see that there are 3 rows of these 8-plot sections. We are in the bottom 1/2 of the garden so there is another section of 3 major plots to the West of us (view in this picture is to the North). I also didn’t take pictures of the massive watering things they have set up for us or the piles of mulch that we can use to make paths.

Step 2: clean the plot.

Logan and Aiden with daddy: ready for rock-hunting and weed digging!

The top soil was super wet so we all ended up with a good 1/2 inch or more of dirt on our shoes (this is a picture of Brady’s foot). Talk about a massively dirty shower when we got home…we were all FILTHY!

Step 3 & 4: Peat Moss and Mushroom Compost

Step 5 was fertilizer, but I had gone to the park with Logan and Brady so I missed all that. Aiden was busy catching bugs in the field. He found an iridescent beetle which he carried around with him, pinched between his 2 fingers, for over an hour. He took him in the car home with us and put him in our bug collector where he lived happily until Logan took the lid off to get a better look…and then he flew away (Aiden was NOT happy!)