The Wee Garden

I have wanted to put a little garden in for a few years now. Seems as though I was always working on the plants and weeds and rocks and filling low areas rather than doing a garden. Earlier this spring I told Little Buddy that we could plant a few cucumber plants this year, maybe we could even have a little garden. So when Cop Dad asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day, I told him I wanted to work in the yard as a little family project and make a garden. We started with nothing more than 2 old railroad ties. I thought we could recycle them and cut them both in half. Then dig out the sod from the area that all four halves of the railroad ties would make. Then we could fill with some good dirt and raise the level a little higher than our actual yard (which gets standing water in many spots). Well the sawing of the railroad ties was a real chore. Then we created a square and measured out the spot to remove the grass. Then we took all that perfectly good sod/grass and laid it out in a very low spot in our yard to fill it in. Then we were off to Menards. We picked up beans, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries, LOTS of top soil, some really good garden soil to mix with the top soil, and chicken wire. They were out of cucumber so I just picked that up today at Home Depot this morning. I bought plants. They were cheap. One year I will start from seed but with a baby and toddler, this year would have to be plants which are sooooo much easier.

It went pretty well, though Cop Dad had a hard time ripping out perfectly good grass in our little yard. He was also very hesitant about laying the sod strips/chunks in the low area where we always have water and no grass grows. I did my best to convince him that the sod would do fine and anything would be better than the small pond that we get in that spot regularly. Where the dog likes to dig and jump around . . . . . when it's muddy . . . . . of course.

Our garden is so tiny but the work involved, wow! Little Buddy was so excited. Cop Dad was being a bit of a grump, until I sent him these texts when I was waiting in the car with the kids. "Quit whining!" "Make the most of the day!" "We love you!"

That was all it took. He snapped out of it. He said, "Man, why am I so crabby?" I said, "I have no idea but it's kind of a buzz kill, can you cheer up so we can all have a good day together as a family?" After all it was Mother's Day and his mood and attitude affects each of us, no matter how much I let it roll off.

So, we got everything done and Cop Dad was acting very proud of our garden. Yeah! Little Buddy was really excited too. He just wanted to walk in the dirt and dump things in the garden. Oh no! So we had to lay some ground rules. Think he gets it now. He wanted to see the garden last night after it was dark out and was getting ready for bed. Too cute!

I know the garden is small but this is good for now. We'll see how it goes. We can always expand later. I also got breakfast from Panera and a nice card and iTunes gift card too.