afternoon garden walk

This dreary and wet afternoon I decided to break out my Canon that never gets much love and snap a few pictures of our garden. When I walk through it I actually cannot believe that it belongs to Byron and I. While I wish that I could take some credit of how beautifully everything turned out, I hardly can. I was tending to babies while Byron was tending to vegetables. Just to think, I actually hassled him a time or two over all the puttering that he was doing in early spring!

Byron and I are definitely fans of the "learn as you go" method. So with a few seed packets (more like 20) and some seed starter trays we dug in (all the pun intended). There were so many moments that we realized we had no idea what we were doing and also moments of frustration from both of us. But our optimism was refilled every time a plant grew a new leaf.

Now that July is here we are starting to see the fruits of our labor! We have some visible zucchini and summer squash. We have harvested beets and kale. Our beans, cucumbers and more kale are coming along just fine. I cannot wait to see where we are at in another month!

Our wonderful ladies who have added so much joy into our days! We have Greta, Goldie, Pio and Hei Hei. Each with their own personality but all equally silly yet adorable. We are still waiting on them to start laying (tick, tock girls) but hopefully by the end of the summer.

And our herbs, tomatoes, peppers and strawberry plants on the porch. This is my favorite part of our garden, with my especially favorite plant (don't tell the others) being that big beautiful tomato plant in the back. There are no less than 9 tomatoes currently plumping up on that baby. I'm basically depending on that plant for tomato canning practice next month!

There is something that having a garden has brought us that I never considered in my apartment dwelling days where I would dream of having a small patch of earth to call our own. The feeling of sticking your hands right into a big pile of dirt...there is no better therapy. The simple action of watering and nurturing plant life is so fulfilling. And having this experience for the kids has been great, I think that Avery knows more about plant and bug life than i do! Sure, having an abundance of fresh vegetables throughout the summer will be a nice treat, but we have learned that gardening is so much more than that. I already look forward to next spring when I am able to participate more in the creating of the garden if the babies allow me more freedom.

All we know is that we are hooked and we know that gardening will hold a place in our lives from here on out. Now to plan for fall!