Prepping the garden bed.

A few years ago I felt ambitious enough to build a few raised garden beds. Two 4'x8' and one 4'x4'. And I filled them up. Lots of tomatoes, peppers, basil, etc. And then not much grew. I think it might be a little bit to do with the fact that I filled the whole beds with cow manure compost and didn't water consistently. Plus it was hot, and I don't like sweating that much.

But I really wanted to grow my own veggies, so we planted again the next year. Did a little better, got more veggies out of it. And then again the next year.

Last year, we tore up the small box and one large box because with Adelaide here, we decided we'd rather have more yard space. Priorities changing a little. We have a kid that loves to run around, so a yard to explore is important. Plus, we were pretty pathetic with our garden. Too much at once, perhaps? One box is left, a large one, and I'm going to do my best to be really good with it this year. I kinda wish I'd kept that smaller box. I could have filled it with sand and plopped Adelaide in it while I work in the yard. Oh well.

Due to leaving the box out all winter uncovered, it looked pretty messy. And it was filled with cat poop. So I scooped out the top 4-5 inches of dirt and used it to fill in holes in the yard. (Remember last post where I talked about an uneven yard? It's very uneven.) And we went to Lowe's and bought cheap-o topsoil to fill it back up. And I added a big bag of peat moss because I read somewhere that I should. And then I took the extra fencing/netting that I used to baby-proof the deck, and used it to cover up the box to deter the cats from using it as a big poop-box.

Adelaide started off on a blanket with snacks, but quickly worked her way over to the box. I had to redirect her from the poop dirt to the good, new dirt. No touching poop dirt, yuck! She loved pushing her hands through the dirt. It's the same thing she does in the sand box at the park. She practically dives into the stuff. She didn't eat any, but she did dump some on her head, and then looked pretty proud.

I'm excited to start seeds tonight (a little late), and I'm even more excited to have Adelaide spend time with me outside and watch the plants grow. I want her to know where her food comes from, and there's no thing as too early to start teaching.

Do you garden?