Things change....for the better!

We got our garden box! I'm so excited! Costco dropped the price by two-thirds now that it's reaching the end of the planting season. I'm pumped! We aren't sure yet whether or not we'll be planting anything for fall yet, but it's sitting in our garage waiting for a space to be cleared on the side of the house.

We've been battling our lawn recently. It's been turning yellow, and we've got crab grass thanks to the neighbors who've let their lawn go completely to crab grass. We are determined not to let that happen in our lawn, but it will always be a problem since our lawn butts up against theirs.

We bought a badminton/volleyball set and got it all set up in the back yard, it's a lot of fun. My parents gave us a croquet set they won in a raffle and didn't want. We've definitely got a wide variety of sports to play.

I'm just excited to get our garden started though, and I'm going to try to convince Ryan to plant at least some greens for the fall...we'll see!

Choices

Money is tight. That's a common phrase now-of-days. We had to make a decision between patio furniture and a garden, and the furniture won out. I'm sad, but, still feeling energized, because while there may not be a pretty vegetable garden this year...there is still plenty of work to do in our yard. It also may be a bit much to handle since we're still within the first six months of moving in.

That said, the blog will be on pause until next year, when we feel we have more time to dedicate to the responsibilities of being gardeners.

The Garden Department

We went to Lowe's a couple of weeks ago, and wandered around drooling at all the lovely plants available for purchase. We've decided on a well stocked veggie garden, with tomatoes, various squash, onions, herbs and peppers (my goal is to eventually make my own salsa!). AND now we're excited about fruit, particularly berries. I really want to grow some raspberries and blackberries.

We still haven't purchased our garden box yet. It's still waiting for us at Costco. Once we get our tax money that (along with some nice looking patio furniture we found at Target) will be one of the many things we buy for the house.

Late February

Perhaps one of the most exciting things about building a new home, was the fact that our back yard is vast. There would be plenty of room for a volleyball court, a good sized pool and a vegetable garden. The latter of the three will be the only thing being built in our back yard. There is a sunny patch, on the east side of the house, which should still get plenty of sun, but not so much that our lovely veggies will burn to a crisp in the searing Central Valley heat. That's my hope anyway.

It's been years since I've gardened. My parents were always avid gardeners, we always had a bounty of various plants in the summer-time; tomatoes, many varieties of peppers, squash, onions, carrots, greens. But this was a long time ago, when I was still in high school. I remember coming home, and my chore, every evening would be to do the watering, while my parents picked any ripe produce.

I'm excited to continue this tradition in our new home, with a new life. My questions are many:

When do we start?
What should we plant?
How big?
How many?

We have zero supplies, coming from half a decade in apartment life. We don't even have a lawn mower yet! It's exciting, and I suppose we'll learn as we go.