Piper Paradise: How Does Your Garden Grow?

We have been talking and contemplating planting a garden. Yesterday we did it!! Well between Tuesday and today, we finished getting it ready. Daddy Piper's work has stopped for the time being so I took advantage of his muscles and put him to work. Tuesday was spent getting the ground level and supplies for building the raised bed. Wednesday was spent building the raised bed, filling it with dirt, manure and good soil and then planting the goodies. We did it based on the Square Foot Gardening concept, giving each item a square foot to grow and then switching around the vegetables next planting season so that the soil gets used to grow different stuff each time. This time we planted the following: Tomatoes, Basil, Carrots, Radish, Onion, Chives, Cilantro, Green Beans, Corn & Squash. We also planted a tire in the ground to do potatoes but I need to find seed potatoes to do this I guess, according to the sources I found online. The kids were having fun helping. I did learn though that neither of the older 2 like to get dirty. Almost immediately after getting their hands in the mud to plant seeds, they want their hands washed! Baby J hung out in his Einstein or in the Pack-n-Play, enjoying the wonderful weather.

L standing next to the ground being prepared for the raised bed. We had to level the ground out before we could out the raised beds down.

S standing next to the level ground, on the tire we are planning to use for the potatoes. This was back breaking labor. I wanted to save the money on a tractor and do it ourselves, so we did it all by hand. I did help about 2 wheelbarrows full but Daddy did most of it.

Here Daddy and the kids are bringing around the manure and top soil for the raised beds. Daddy handing J to L to hold for a second. I happen to catch it from the across the way. She did great holding him all by herself.