HARVEST!

I went out to trim back some of the poor veggies who have been just SLAMMED with rain in the last couple of weeks (please oh please let the rain stop and my garden have a chance to grow!!!) and I found these radishes poking RIGHT OUT of the ground!!  They are lovely.  And they were delicious!

And there was this lovely spinach that I sauteed with garlic from the recipe here:

That huge amount of spinach was enough for ONE side for ONE dinner, but still!  It came from our garden!!  It was a small accomplishment, but an accomplishment nonetheless.  My son, who likes NOTHING, even gobbled it down.

THE Garden - Week Three.

It is all coming together!  And things are beginning to show growth - I think I can tell the difference three weeks makes??  First, here are some of the photos I hadn't posted yet:

Last weekend we planted the herb garden:

And the "fruit planter box":

Around the corner from the fruit planter, we planted blueberries in the GROUND - shocking concept...

And here are all four planters so far:

We will still make one more this summer to plant another wave - hopefully staggering the "harvest" - and then maybe another large planter next summer.  My husband is building trellises as we speak.

AND THESE ARE THE SEEDS WE PLANTED!!

and radishes!!

and CARROTS!!

I've planted exactly 4 things from seed in my life.  One was sweet little clover my husband and I found in Ireland on our honeymoon, complete with tiny "pot of gold" to plant them in.  I made a miniature tent out of toothpicks and saran wrap just like the instructions told me to.  The teeny little clover sprouted and grew sturdily until about three inches high when I was instructed to remove the itty bitty little tent just in time for the leggy greens to flop over and die on me!  Every. Last. Clover.  I threw the whole damn pot in the garbage.

For our wedding favors we shared Forget-me-not seeds with all of our loving family and friends.  These flowers grow like weeds in Alaska where I grew up.  Think THEY survived?  Not one. 

My third try is on our windowsill right now.  It is a princess terrarium my daughter received as a birthday gift from her dear friend.  It has already been dumped on the floor, and I'm telling you, if those little buggers don't grow, I'm buying a giant hanging basket of impatiens and shoving them in the damn little princess container and lying to her about the whole thing so she'll escape the curse.

Number four?  THE SEEDS YOU SEE GROWING ABOVE!!!!!!

THE Garden

We've finally done it!  We have planted a garden!  Of course since the weekend we've had wind storms, hail storms, and rain storms, but everything still seems to be alive and growing.  Can't see the seeds yet (yes, SEEDS, seriously, EEK), but I'm confident they will be showing themselves soon!!

Here is our original plan for the back yard:

(oy the new formatting in blogger is GREAT, and stubborn...)

We've decided to go with just 3 of the large planter boxes and 3 of the thinner boxes that will be against the fence.

We bought this great book at Powells and learned SO much - I highly recommend it!

This is the thin box before it gets a bottom:

After the bottom is put on, we but down the 3/4 - rock for drainage:

This is a barrier to stop the dirt from sifting down into the rocks, but water flows freely:

Then a compost/dirt/sand mix that was recommended:

Our little garden:

Our trusty little trailer:

AND the final wall garden!!:

Our first big bed!!:

I just checked and there is nothing to harvest yet....  maybe by this evening?!

Turn That Brown Thumb Upside Down!

Or turn it green?

I come from a long, long, long line of green thumbs. Both sides of my family have grown beautiful yards and house plants and fed their families the fresh fruits and vegetables they've grown. My mom grew lovely things in ALASKA. Somehow this enviable genetic trait jumped right over me. It landed and settled nicely with my brother, but not even the teeniest bit wiped off on me. Let's be serious, I'm a danger to anything green and growing. Lucky for me, we live in Portland, and it seems if you plunk something in the soil outside it just grows and grows! It might have a little something to do with the tender care of my husband, but don't tell him that.

And what is my new project? A HOME GARDEN!! That is right, I'm going to plant these lovely things, I promise to take care of them to the best of my ability, and we will eat and store the harvest!! The price of organic fruits and veggies is outrageous and my son is incredibly sensitive to the damn pesticides, so we are going to do this ourselves!!

Here is what we have so far:

Not really! That is Martha Stewart's garden. We hope to have a tiny corner of this yard!

Our back yard was hyped as "RV parking" when we bought this house, which means half of it is paved into a horrendous concrete pad. The neighbors said at one time a sweet little garage sat in the concrete pad's spot, but that it was knocked down when a tree fell. We'd love to replace it, but for now we can afford a few above ground garden beds!

Our plan is to put thin beds along the fence and plant "climbing growies" (this is an architectural term) to soften the hard fence, and large beds along the rest of concrete. My husband started making them:

He drafted out plans on the computer and we found lots of great tips about mesh and drilling holes and planting guidelines for Oregon online. We plan to start small: 3 large planters and 3 against the fence for growies. We'll also plant some blueberry bushes in the little bit of actual soil we have along the East wall. I'm so excited to get planting!