"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." -- Margaret Atwood

We intended to plant our garden on Mother's Day, but the weather was cold and nasty and we had to wait. Yesterday, MB spent the day with his parents to celebrate his dad's birthday. Meanwhile, my dad and my sister--newly returned from a semester abroad in Ireland--helped me get the garden started.


Armed with rakes and a hoe and a lovely short handled spade, we put in four tomato plants (two Big Boy and two hilariously-named Beefmaster); bell peppers in red, green, and yellow; a cucumber plant; and a zucchini plant. It's not much, but I figure it's best to start small since we're not exactly sure we know what we're doing.

Although he wasn't allowed inside the garden itself, Indy provided supervision from his cave behind the bushes:



He definitely looked like he was up to something back there.



Lowe's was sold out of rabbit fencing and even though all three employees we talked to claimed they had it, Rural King only sold "poultry netting," which I guess is what they call chicken wire now, to avoid offending the turkeys. They can call it whatever they want, as long as it keep the rabbits from snarfing down all my baby vegetable plants.

zucchini

cucumber


bell peppers

Both You Grow Girl and Lasagna Gardening recommended using cut-off jugs to provide a more continuous water source to thirsty plants like peppers and tomatoes:




baby tomato plant