The Garden is In!

I've always been a fan of dirt. As a child I baked mud pies and built caterpillar homes in the sandpile my father used to level the land he was building our house on. Maybe you did, too. The caterpillars never seemed to be grateful, however, and always vacated by the next morning. I was a country girl who ran barefoot through the fields and along the river. I was most happy when I was filthy! My mother didn't seem to mind, but my aunt who lived in town never failed to make me wash in the tub during sleepovers with my cousin.

Fast forward to adulthood, and I'm still happiest when digging in the dirt. However, my successes in the garden have been hit or miss with one rose bush blooming like crazy, and the other one stumpy and sad. One year I planted a tomato garden around the backyard foundation and had so many cherry tomatoes we couldn't eat them all. That was my one and only successful veggie garden.

My son, Conner, and I dug out a large vegetable garden 3 years ago. We painstakingly worked in compost, topsoil, and peat moss. We set up a fence around the perimeter to keep our dogs from digging up the delicate seedlings. My daughter, Holly, and I planted tomatoes and green beans which wound their way up the fence with beautiful, green vines. I couldn't wait to gather the harvest from this "real" garden!

The tomatoes started to ripen and turn from green to orange to red. One day while weeding I noticed my dog, Wendy, barking, barking, barking like crazy.  "What in the world is she barking at?," I asked Holly. It was a mystery until Ta-Da!, we realized she thought the tomatoes were balls! She was so frustrated that we had grown all these wonderful, beautiful balls but wouldn't let her have them she decided to break in and take them herself! Once tasted, the tomato became one of her favorite treats. Very few made it to our dining table. Even fewer beans as Wendy had sampled those as well.

Last year, we tried two raised gardens in the front, side yard. I found plastic forms at Walmart for $20 that would give me two lovely, round gardens. Finally, I could have the tasty vegetables I remembered! Again, Conner and I set them up and filled them with Miracle Gro Garden Soil this time after laying down a thick layer of newspapers to prevent the grass from making a comeback.

My friend down the street also set up two of these gardens. We were so excited! Dana and I shopped together for plants and seeds. I chose tomatoes, green beans, (what can I say?), various herbs, and 3 different colored bell peppers: yellow, red, and orange. In addition to the basic tomatoes and green beans, Dana chose cucs, squash, and eggplant. Her garden flourished while all my plants just sort of sat there. Oh, I got a few tomatoes and one or two peppers, but mostly my garden grew marigolds.

Yesterday, with the cracked forms thrown in the trash I created a long, rectangular garden where the two circle beds had been. It's roughly 4 x 16 ft. This year will be The Year of the Garden!