How it began...

That's right, we've decided to put in another garden after last year's somewhat successful second attempt to become veggie farmers.







To catch you up to speed, Dan and I bought our house in 2005 and decided to dedicate a small portion of the yard to veggies and herbs. So, the following year, we picked a spot, tilled it, and put up a fence around it. Unfortunately, we didn't count on the pecan trees putting out their leaves and covering the entire garden in shade - a death-sentence for vegetables. Our veggies promptly died, along with our dreams of harvesting our own food.





The next two years, we talked about setting up a garden, but it never happened... we couldn't agree on a spot to put it! We tried a couple of container plants, but didn't do a very good job at watering them, so they died. (Do you see the theme here? We are good at killing plants!)





Last year, 2008, Dan finally learned to just let me have my way (it only took a few years!) and we created a raised bed for our veggies in a sunny, sheltered area next to the house and filled the bed with compost from the landfill. The compost was apparently nuclear, because our plants really grew, as evidenced in the photos below:

(Day 1)

(Below: one month later!)

(Below: two months later!)

As you can see, the poor plants were crowded, and after a few rainy weeks shortly after the last picture was taken, the zucchini and cucumber got moldy and died. The tomatoes were so huge they overshadowed the peppers, and the beetles kept getting to the them before we could. The only thing that was really great in last year's garden was the eggplant which just kept on producing for us!

So, there were definitely some lessons learned (I bought several gardening and composting books AFTER this misadventure), and we took a little more time to plan the layout of the garden this year.
This blog will be an update on our garden space so you all can keep up with what's on our table this summer/fall.