Growing things...

Well, our garden is in full swing! Which is pretty exciting since it was all just a big patch of scrubby grass a few months ago. Last summer when we bought the house, I was so excited with the potential for a large-scale garden. And had hoped to get it planned and framed as soon as we moved in. Well, breaking my leg on the day of the closing (whooops), and the subsequent surgery, complications and healing, left all my plans on hold until this spring.

Thankfully, my leg has healed well, and I have a wonderful, supportive husband, Michael, who has done yeoman's duty helping to make my garden plans come to life.

Here he is back in May framing out some beds... (Thanks to brother-in-law Allen and the surprise gift of a power drill. Whoohoo! That sure sped up the process.)


And then we went the lasagna gardening route, using newspaper/packing paper laid over the grass, then kitchen scraps and compost or grass-clippings and then topsoil. And then the planting. My notebook was brimming with sketches, lists and seed catalogs!

Now, here are those same beds, in mid-July. The one that Michael was building is the one on the far side, taller than the chain link fence. It and the one to the right are filled with a "three-sisters" planting. A symbiotic companion planting of corn, pole beans and squash or pumpkins. They are going like crazy! The beds in the foreground were planted later, but have things like broccoli, kale, radishes, carrots, melons and lots of beans. The cobwebby trellis is one I put together for the red runner beans, and inspired by Green Kitchen.

And lastly, here is a close-up of the strange hoopy chicken-wire structure I built for the cucumbers to climb over and shield the mesclun that I've planted inside. We've named it the "cukastoga wagon."

Hope everything in your world is growing and reaching for the light. I'm off to harvest another bunch of lettuce.