Time To Get Dirty!

It seems like it has been cold here forever. Before we moved to Oregon, everyone kept talking about the rain. No one mentioned the fact that there is no spring here. 9 months of winter? Yes. But spring, not so much. Ok, maybe I am being a little dramatic, but really, I was about at the end of my rope. I mean, it's MAY. Why am I still having to wear jeans and long sleeved shirts? I guess it is just the California girl in me, but I need to wear flip flops, and capris, and tank tops. Well, I got my wish. In a matter of days, it went from cold to hot here. Which means, not only can we wear less clothing, but now we can finally plant our garden!

We decided that since we don't have great soil here and we don't own a garden tiller, that the best choice for planting a garden this year would be to build some raised beds. So off to the hardware store we went. We got lumber, nails, compost and soil and Steve and I built the raised beds a few days ago.

Here are some pics of the beds, taken in the evening:





So today, we finally had everything we needed in order to actually plant some things in the beds. Jackson was a big help. He loves being outside and today was no exception.







Although our beds aren't huge, we were able to plant a variety of fruits and veggies. In the raised beds, we planted:

tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, carrots, broccoli, zuchinni, sugar snap peas, corn, green beans, lettuce and peppers.

Bailey made these signs to go in the beds:

Even only planting one or two of each plant, we ran out of room pretty quickly, so Steve dug up an area next to our fence and we planted watermelon and cateloupe directly in the ground.

After the beds were completed, Bailey spruced them up by adding some artistic touches. She did a great job:

So now we just sit back and wait to see what survives and thrives. Tomatoes should be ready first, then come July and August, we hope to be able to harvest some fresh fruits and veggies, right from our own backyard. We hope this is a fun way for Jackson to learn about how food grows and hopefully it will taste yummy as well!