Our Vegetable Garden

Yesterday we planted a garden. "LA'S GARDEN," as she demands we call it. (Only-Child Syndrome to the MAX, people.)

None of us had ever planted a garden before, so we didn't have the faintest clue what we were doing. In case you want to know how amateurs who know nothing plant gardens, here's how we did it:

Our first step was to choose the perfect location for our garden. Which turned out to be smack-dab in the middle of the yard. It's the perfect location for future trampling by La and her friends when they run through the yard like wild banshees. It's also the perfect location to maximize sunlight exposure because our back yard is covered in a canopy of trees. And there's this weird rock wall there that seems to serve no purpose that we could use as a border.

Once we had selected the perfect location, we used a hoe to till the existing dirt. I called my dad a few weeks ago to see what the first step to planting a vegetable garden would be, and he said that we would first need to till the earth. I asked, "So, what do we do, just whack it with something? Like maybe a hoe?" and he was all, "Yes, WHACK THAT HOE."

Guess you had to be there.

So we tilled the earth and such.



La whacked the ground exactly four times with her purple hoe and then proclaimed that she was done working for the day.

When the ground was finally tilled (thanks to our strong and handsome Dr P) we dumped three cubic feet of organic peat moss and 7.5 cubic feet of organic garden soil over the area. We kind of just randomly chose those amounts of peat moss and soil, and went with it. I'll let you know how that turns out.



Then, with the help of La's best buddy, we spread it all around and mixed it in with the existing soil.

La paused to explain emphatically that we were doing it all wrong.



We ignored her.

Then we built two sides out of bricks to complete the border of the garden.



The next step—which is absolutely crucial to building a proper garden—was for La to run into the house and fetch a bowl of milk for the pesky neighborhood cat, being sure to leave the milk carton out on the kitchen floor in eighty degree weather, to be discovered two hours later.



While Pesky Cat was enjoying his treat, we planted the veggies according to the directions on the packages.



We made sure to label each row with a marker so we would know what the heck we were growing. Then we yelled at Pesky Cat to get out of the dang garden and stop pulling all of our dang markers out of the ground.



Then La got bored and cranky from all the hard work she had done whacking the earth four times with her purple hoe ... so the feisty little stinker started playing with the camera.



Then, as the sun was setting, we stood back to admire our fine accomplishment. What a lot of work for a teeny little garden.

After having to shoo pesky cat out of the garden eight times and having to pull markers out of his sassy mouth twice, we decided it would be wise to draw a map. So we did.

And that's how we planted our garden. I sure hope those darn veggies grow!