Vegetable Garden

This year, I dug a new veggie garden in our backyard. There was an old raised bed that my grandmother put in probably 25 years ago which I tore out (which, I might add, took me 4 days in itself to get out! There was about 15 square feet of chicken wire and tarp under the ground that was intended to keep out gophers/moles, but I don't think it ever worked.) then I doubled the size. Then, I dug compost into the whole thing (the compost was black and crumbly and had been preparing to nourish my garden for probably 20 years!).

After the soil was dug and fluffy and picked clean of weeds and roots (there's a huge redwood not 5 feet away which may cause problems with its roots invading the area), I created 3 long, wide raised rows. In these rows, I planted beans (thanks to Shelley for the organic heirloom beans!), lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, beets, radishes, cucumbers, cilantro, peas, chard and arugula. Wow, that sounds like a lot of stuff written down on paper.

There's also an herb garden where I've planted a bunch of yummy herbs, including basil, parsley, oregano and chives. The cats are ecstatic that I've also planted catnip for them. Although, as I've learned in previous years, I haven't let them at the plant yet because last time a catnip plant was left unprotected it was crushed in the first 20 minutes of life. Around the plant are a few bamboo sticks trying to protect the plant from an overly affectionate kitty. We'll see if it works.



Here's how it looks now! Everything is very small and barely poking their little heads out of the soil, but I have high hopes... Soon, I hope to show baskets of fresh, tender produce!