Gardending

This year for our Mother's Day activity, Jason decided it would be fun to plant our garden. The way our house is set up, there are some interesting shade problems to deal with, so we decided to take out the yucky bushes that were directly off our front porch and plant some stuff there. Jason spent about 4 days tearing all the crappy bushes out - it was really pretty bad, the precious owners had put a mat down so the weeds wouldn't grow, however, they then also planted some kind of vine - looked like holly - it was pretty, but very prickly (Lucy actually cut the bottom of her foot stepping on it) and the vines had so fully grown in and around the mat that it took some serious muscle to get it all out! He totally broke a shovel trying to dig it out one night... didn't know the strength of my own hubby! At any rate, we are planting a small variety of things... this weekend we started with some butternut squash, beets, carrots (red, white, yellow, orange and purple ones) and lettuce. We still need to plant rhubarb (it is such a pretty plant,) asparagus, artichokes, cardoon (the plant looks similar to rhubarb, but the stalk once cooked tastes like artichoke heart - or so we hear!) and herbs. Those are all going to be planted in the back and it has not been prepared yet, so hopefully we will be able to get those done soon too!

Here my Dad and Jason are raking and getting ready to put the seeds in... actually, I think Jason was already seeding the beets... that's not really why I put this picture on here, I wanted to have witnesses to the fact that my hubby, whom I love dearly, was mooning all of our new neighbors... just say no, honey, just say no!

Lucy loves to be outside... and would probably never come in if we didn't make her - just like her dad was at that age!

I love this little girl... she is so curious about everything!  I particularly love the "smile face" you have seen it a few other times, and I am sure it will continue to pop up!

Nana had the fun task of keeping the dogs and Lucy out of the garden... Opie really felt that she needed to supervise by being in the thing, and Lucy always has to be in the middle too, so it actually was a task! Luckily, Nana knows the trick to keeping Lucy occupied is a book, and Opie will pretty much always stay by Lucy to protect her, so it worked!

I love these two men!  They are so much alike in so many ways... both quick to laugh, quicker to help, and just down right amazing men!  (notice Opie on the right there "supervising" things)

Lucy wanted to know how to do all the planting... she was pretty cute about it... however, we are pretty sure that there will be some clumps of lettuce that are outside the rows... but boy did she have fun!

Look how cute my husband is!  I love him tons and tons!  He is so excited to grow our own garden... so having him so excited also makes me excited!  Now let's just cross our fingers that things will actually grow - even though we have some lovely critters already crawling through there and digging things.. ugh!!

One last picture for you... I know it looks like I am soaking Lucy, but I was in fact watering the newly planted seeds... Lucy just had it in her head that she needed to drink from the hose too!  She was pretty wet by the time we came in... but she had a good time, and darn it, that is what is important!!