It is late August and our garden is in full swing. We are enjoying ample amounts of leafy greens, our tomatoes are making a delicious appearance and our golden beets are exploding from the ground.
Before. Plotting out our garden.
We added another flower bed while ripping up sod for our garden spot.
This past winter, we made it a goal of ours to construct the garden of our dreams. With some sweat and elbow grease (okay, a lot), we designed and built what is now our favorite hangout spot in the backyard.
We began by measuring and plotting our space. Once happy with our design, Ethan took on the arduous task of removing sod, approximately 400 square feet of sod. Seriously folks, what a guy! I attempted to help with this process, but apparently, pregnancy and shoveling aren’t compatible.
No more sod. Let the fun begin!
Ethan putting the final touches on the underground irrigation system.
Chossy doing her part.
And here too… soaking up those early spring rays.
Ethan also designed our underground irrigation system, which is set on a timer and waters our boxes twice daily. This makes weekend adventures possible and morning watering a breeze.
One box complete. Three more to go!
We chose to build our boxes in a variety of sizes to add more depth and features to the backyard.
We crafted our boxes, filling them with a variety of organic soils. Once in place, we covered the remaining space around them with small pea-like gravel, adding pavers throughout.
All set up! Time to plant our seeds and starts.
While we labored away on the layout and design of the garden, our little seeds were working hard inside: germinating, growing big and strong. We planted tomatoes, carrots, leeks, onions, golden beets, lettuce, arugula, spinach, peas, basil, chives, and squash (which we might actually be able to harvest before seeing the earliest signs of winter this year).
After. Hello, Garden!
In the fading evening light, this little garden of ours glows. Gardening for both E and I is very therapeutic and something we treasure dearly. It has been an incredible summer to explore, experiment and learn which vegetables and fruits do well and which we will rethink for next season. We are happy with how it all turned out and are looking forward to another season of sweet sunshine, gardening and sharing these special moments with our little one.
Until then, I am eager to harvest those darling tomatoes and make salsa!
Garden’s growing…family’s growing… so much to love!!!
Just for the record, I adore that girl.
We need more photos of your yard, it’s looking amazing. And is that plastic covers with wood as weights!? We may have to institute that on our hoop garden.
Falco! Yep, those wooden weights hold down our plastic sheets and keep our plants warm for a few more weeks on either end of our growing season. Super excited to see how they work come end October!