Green Thumb!? Who Knew?

This year I planted our first garden. I'll start at the beginning with our tiller experience. We decided to rent one so I called the local rental place and reserved a tiller, "just a garden tiller," I told the girl on the phone.

Apparently there are options. Anyway, when B arrived to pick it up for the weekend the sales associate asked which kind we'd reserved; a front-wheel tiller or a back-wheel tiller. B, being a bit more frugal-minded these days (I've finally worn off on him!) asked about the cost difference and, after the sales associate determined only one option was left, anyway, loaded up the cheaper (and most difficult to operate) one and headed home. We had it for the entire weekend!

We got started on Saturday and B worked on tilling that little plot of land for 45 minutes, just sweating it out. (I cannot complain about watching the muscles of his forearms bulging in the sun-woot woot!) In that 45 minutes the size of my future garden was decreased by 1/2, and we began to seriously consider scrapping this whole garden idea and investing in a couple of those planter boxes for the back porch.

Then...B had one of his genius* ideas. He'd tie one end of a 6' lead rope to one of the arms of the tiller at hip level, run it around his hips and tie the other end at the same height to the other arm. Using his weight, he was able to lean back on the rope, keeping the tiller in place and from running away with us. That's right, even I could till easily with this modification.

*I waited to classify his idea as 'genius' until we'd finished the project and all limbs were present and attached.

Had it not been nearly dark by this time, we probably would've continued with the original garden plans, but we ended up with about an 18' x 18' area. Just perfect for our first garden. :)

A few days later L and I took a trip to the Co Op to pick up some plants. Before I knew it I was out of control and had purchased 19 tomato plants; 6 cherry, 6 I-can't-remember-regular-size, 6 of another I-can't-remember-either-regular-size, and 1 heirloom. (One was fatally injured sometime during the ride from the house to the garden-see pic below-so I have 18 plants now.) We also picked up some jalapeños, bell peppers, watermelons, strawberries, and squash.

I loaded L and the plants and headed out to the garden, where I dug lots of holes and spent the first 30 mins of my planting time squatting down with L lying on by back, crying. My quads were relieved when he finally gave up and headed off to play.


I think this pic was taken about 3 weeks in, judging by the size of my potato plants.


Here it is today. Notice my Master Gardener neighbor's garden behind mine. Lyndon (who Brian called Weldon the day before we moved in as he was helping B build our barn-oh, the embarrassment!) has been a huge help to us.



It's not that I don't like squash, it's that I absolutely HATE it with a gagging passion-right, Mom? :) Always have, always will. So, I planted squash for two reasons and two reasons only. 1. B and my mom like squash. 2. It grows quickly, which makes one look like they can grow a garden and makes that garden look good-especially if you're trying to impress your Master Gardener neighbor who lives right behind you and whose garden is 10 times the size of yours and looks fabulous.

Take a look at our first squash. Figures. But, I don't think Lyndon saw 'them'.
I think we've harvested 16 normal squash and they've received rave reviews from several squash lovers. I haven't had to eat one. Mission accomplished!

This little watermelon is almost a foot long and is growing so fast. Can't wait to try it in a few weeks!

I planted 4 strawberry plants and this is the only one w/ fruit. Any bets on who will get it first? My money's on our resident rabbit. We'll see!
We're loving having our garden and hope to enjoy (and share!) our fruits and veggies this summer and throughout the year if I get around to processing the tomatoes to be frozen.

Or maybe I'll set up a tomato stand for my summer job. :)