Monday, May 2, 2011

As the Garden Grows

Our weather has warmed in Maine. The 60s have returned (sometimes) and night lows are above freezing (most nights). Our seeds and bulbs have arrived. Time for planting!

But, before we sowed some of our seeds, we needed to do some "construction". We added another 12 inches depth to J's raised 12x6 veggie bed and we made C's new 6x2 flower bed. This meant lifting and hoeing 2500 pounds of soil and peat moss. The muscles were achy that night and the kids headed off to bed early!
C Sitting on Soil While her Raised Garden was Built

A Nailing Together C's Bed


J Putting Together the Frame for the Veggie Bed

C Removing Grass from the Bottom of her Flower Bed
J Getting Ready to Add Soil to the Veggie Bed

C planted a variety of bulbs in her garden - Winter Hardy Glads, Dutch Irises, Daffodils, and Lilies - and Blue Delphinium and Jester Blue Bicolor seeds. 
C's Flower Bed
We didn't have enough soil and peat moss to finish filling J's veggie bed, and, since we were tired and C needed to get to softball practice, we decided to call it a day and get more soil later this week. 
Not Quite Full
Our "Dirt Digger", S, decided to transplant 2 little pine trees he found in the shadow of a large rock and made divots all over the lawn looking for worms to add to the garden. And did he ever need a long, sudsy bath!
This was Just the Beginning!


7 comments:

  1. Neat!! We've talked about starting a vegetable garden - would be a first since my babies we were born, 12+ years, lol! But, we'll be gone half of May and all of July, so not sure it's worth starting.. Plus the deer are everywhere!! Would need a high fence, for sure.
    We still have a little snow :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the last pic! That is what my son looks like every time he goes outside :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks great!! I want to do the straw bale beds.. right now we have random plants. tomotoes in an egg carton sprouting, peas on the side of the brick etc.. I just know we will move soon. I can move straw bales! plus less weeding

    ReplyDelete
  4. Loving the choices for the flower bed- it's sure to be beautiful in no time!

    ReplyDelete
  5. We're finally getting warmer weather here too in the midwest even though the temperature dipped very low yesterday. Today, was warm in the low 60's with bright sunshine! Your family did a great job pitching in on the gardening project.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love that the whole family is involved!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just started doing raised bed gardening last fall. So far I have two 8x4 beds, and would love to have more, but we are doing as we can afford to. FYI--I doon't remove the grass, I just put a layer of several sheets of newspaper down, wet it good, then cover with dirt. It's worked well so far, I have no weeds or grass growing in the beds.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for reading! Please share your thoughts in the comment box. We love hearing from our visitors!