what i did on my spring break...

Ok, so it's only the first official day of spring break, but I do still have to work so I got busy doing the things on the list in my head.

I've always wanted a garden, and now that time are a little tougher (or a lot!) for everyone, I decided to go for it. I want to be able to grow my own vegetables and have them available whenever I want right out of my own yard instead of from China (or wherever else they might be imported).

Unfortunately our yard is nothing but Georgia red clay. Grass doesn't even grow here willingly. And our 'yard' is not very big and mostly a hill. Not much room for a garden.

So I bought a book called Square Foot Gardening, read it last night, and then went to my local nursery and Lowes to get what we needed. We ended up having to call a friend to help us with the plywood because it wouldn't fit in our car! Thanks Jacob!

Nate and I picked some plants we know we'll use including 4 different kinds of HOT peppers (all Nate), carrots, squash, lettuce, parsnips, beets, eggplant, kale, swiss chard, onions, tomatoes, basil and marigolds (so pretty!).


Nate is a better box builder and general drill operator than me, so he took over building the box. It was super easy and we had it together in just a few minutes.

p.s. This is the flattest spot in our yard. Directly above is a hill and directly below is a slope that goes down another 20-30 feet to a creek. But we do have loads of trees, so it kind of makes up for it.

Then he attached the plywood bottom.


And we have a garden box! It's sitting on weed paper if you're curious. (not that kind of weed.)


And now for the fun part - mixing together the dirt! We started with blending the compost. At the very bottom is cow poo, then on the left side is mushroom compost and the darkest stuff is worm poo. Mmmm.


Then we added peat moss and vermiculite and stirred it all up.

Yay! Real dirt!

We filled up the box with dirt and added the lattice grids. The idea is that you plant each square foot with something different and the grid helps you divide up the box into equal squares. It's also super cute!

Finally, we have some seeds in the dirt and cute little markers so I know what the hell I'm looking at when I go out there. I was able to plant seven squares today and the rest have to be grown inside for a while.


In a few weeks I should have some super yummy vegetables! So. Excited.

Next up...painting my bathrooms! (not quite as exciting.)