Gardening- the first month

I have been loving my new found hobby of gardening. . . although I guess it's not really new. I've tried it a few other times in the past, without much success, but this time I'm all about food, no more pretty lawns and flowering unpronounceable plants; I think I can be much more dedicated to the idea of growing food, and it helps that Courtney and Nate are joining us for this project. Their excitement helps to counter Shawn's lack thereof for this endeavor, although I think now that things are growing, even Shawn is excited. I pointed it out the other day when I caught him all into the sprouts, but he still claims he doesn't like gardening, just science. Still, I think he is liking it just a little. Anyway, I've been taking pictures the last few weeks and here's what we have so far:

The very beginning:
Back in Jan, when it was just all dry weeds and sand.



Week One:
We planted about a dozen things in seed form: collards, onions, green onions, beets, butter lettuce, chard, spinach, squash. . . .



Nate and the lemon tree.


And then there just had to be a bunch of pictures of the dogs mixed in here. They are possibly the worst gardeners ever, but they make for cute garden gnomes.



That "box" there on the right side of the garden was made by Nate the week before we planted anything.


And then we planted a few other things which we bought already started in small containers: garlic, artichokes, shallots, strawberries, the lemon tree and a feijoa tree.


You might start to think that you are seeing a lot of pictures of just Nate working, but really that's not true; he just likes to pose for pictures, that guy.


I think I forgot to take an overall view one of our first week :(


Week Two:
This week we dug out the area for potatoes.






Tatanka did a lot of thoughtful thinking.



We also brought out an old bookshelf and made a planter box out of it over on the left side of the garden. The other image is the area designated, via bricks, for the potatoes after we worked that soil. Also, back in the corner there is where we planted peas in hopes that they will grow up that side fence lattice.


after week two:


And now for a look at how our seeds have been doing. These were just sitting on our kitchen table. Look at them- aren't they magnificent!!





Week Three:
This week the nursery finally had blueberry plants so we were really excited to get those planted. We also planted a raspberry bush and a blackberry one, even though everyone says not to since they completely take over huge areas. But I figured I'll probably kill lots of things so if even just one thing thrives, it at least guarantees me some level of success.




We transplanted some of the little seedling things from their warm and safe home on the kitchen table to the cold and harsh realities of life outside in this box. Unfortunately I'm not sure that some of them handled the move too well, but more on that later.


The squash though, they handled it like champs!


And look at our first strawberry!


After week three: Shawn's parents visited us this week and Chuck made one of my dreams come true. For as long as I can remember I have wanted a hammock in my backyard, and I was telling Chuck about this and he went out and bought me some cement and built me some posts!! I've even had a hammock that I bought in Belize like 5 years ago sitting in the garage waiting for this day- so exciting! So anyway, that's what those new posts are. And you can also see that we built another 3-sided, bottomless box for the left side of the yard.