How Does Your Garden Grow?

We have a cherry tree in our backyard. It's a beautiful tree, producing fluffy pink blossoms every spring, offering lovely shade in the summer, but alas, it's dying. We've had the tree doctor come out and take a look, but this thing is a goner and we're having it removed.

Which means we will have some new sunlit spaces in our yard. Which I have decided would be perfect for a garden. Despite the fact that I can't keep plants alive if my own life depended on it, never mind that we've missed the prime growing season, forgetting the fact that I'll need to harvest eight pints of cherry tomatoes to make the investment pay off, a vegetable garden is exactly what our yard needs. And I'm not talking just any pile of dirt with a few sprouts growing out of it. No, I want a raised garden bed.

As we've discussed it, Matt got really inspired by my vision, vague though it was, and starting doing some research on DIY garden beds. Before I knew it, he had a list of materials drawn up, he'd watched the helpful video instructions online, and Saturday morning found him bright and early, clearing the chosen space of it's rambling wilderness of shrubbery to make room for my new garden. (If you want to know step-by-step how he did it, you'll have to ask him.)

The "before" shot. Matt wages war against the land.

I proudly filled an entire yard bag with clippings and promptly decided I'd done enough. My manly man tamed the wilderness, borrowed the tools, bought the materials, and built me a lovely garden bed, all with plenty of time to make our vegetable run before dinner. (Sorry about the lack of in-progress pictures... I was busy staying nice and cool inside.)

Ready to dig in the dirt. Lots and lots of dirt.

Lots of growing going on.

We picked up a couple tomato plants, a couple bell peppers, a squash, and some herbs. Plus a little bulldog to guard the garden. Nothing too crazy for our first stab at this. Pretty professional looking, eh? Now I just have to keep these little guys alive long enough to produce something!

Introducing the "Fingers Crossed" garden.

After a hard day's work, we were happy to share a summer supper with our neighbors.

The evening concluded with the fire pit.

Matt can build raised garden beds, but I can build a pretty perfect s'more.