Finished garden boxes

Here are the completed garden boxes. One was from last year, and Bob made 2 new ones this year. He also filled them with dirt for me, which was awesome.

This picture was done April 12th and the next one was done May 5th. You'd think I'd have a little more growth on things by now, but it's been chilly and gloomy. Plus I've had to start a few things over after they were eaten by pill bugs.

In addition to battling pill bugs, I'm also battling CRAWFISH coming up in the garden. That should give you some indication just how swampy our back yard gets in the spring. Everytime Mr. Crawfish digs a new hole, I cover it with a heavy flowerpot. And then he digs a new one. It's a fun game we've got going....I'm hoping to eventually chase him out.

I've planted: shallots, blackberries, tomatoes, peppers, squash, zuchinni, zinnias, eggplant, thai basil, cucumber, dill, Indian corn (Parker brought home from school), marigolds (to keep aphids off the tomatoes) and I'm on my 3rd attemp at both sunflowers and beans (the supposed easiest thing in the world to grow).

You'll notice that Parker's wearing her swim suit. Every day after school, ran, shine, or chilly weather Parker puts on her swimsuit and runs around and plays in it. She can't wait until it's warm enough to go swimming.

Spring Break - Garden Box Update

One of our projects for spring break was to plant seeds for our garden plants. Parker has a lot of interest in plants and seeds and planting....but no interest in the actual consumption of vegetables.
We planted seeds for eggplant, cantelope, beans, zucchini, squash, and cucumber. Everything is up now except for the beans. I've tried them twice. I thought those would be the easiest.

Since i have 2 garden boxes to fill, and we need mulch, we ordered in bulk. Here's dirt arrival day:

I'm going to put pictures of the completed garden in another post. I've taken several, but none are very good. I keep thinking my plants are really going to take off, but they're just limping along, like they always do this time of year.

Chores

Every couple weeks I wash a pile of cleaning rags, and Parker has learned to fold them. I give her a choice of either money for her piggy bank or a little toy or gift I've stashed away. On this day she got something she's been asking for for a long time.....her very own clipboard. I guess she gets the love of office supply gene from my side of the family.