Greening Up the Garden

After several years of winter gardens, we (I) decided to try a spring garden. Heretofore, the garden has more or less been Ben's project and he always agrees we should do it again, but somehow doesn't get to the details of actually making it happen, so this time, I did it. Since we no longer have access to a truck to borrow a friend's tiller, I dug up the whole thing by hand. Several blisters (and weekends) later, it was looking...better. Not as good as the tiller and with manure worked in, but better.

I planted the remnants of the seeds from the fall (zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, green onions, etc) across the space of several weeks, depending on what the county extension service recommended for each thing. Then, lucky for us, the Desert Botanical Gardens spring plant sale came up, and so since I wanted to get a few things (including more seeds) anyway, we both went and added a few landscaping plants to finish off the front yard.

The most exciting purchase of that outing were grape vines! Ben has been wanting to build a shade structure to shade the east side of the carport which bakes his car all summer, so this spurred him on. He put up 3 poles (16 bags of concrete later), and attached some fencing. Then the grape vines will get planted and start climbing the structure (and hopefully we'll get some grapes!) This is one of the vines, waiting to be planted.

I finished off the garden with squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, corn, and beans. We'll see how long all of these items last in the summer heat. Most things should be fine until about mid-June, from what I hear, though the melons will be good to go all summer. I've been like a kid, out there every day checking to make sure everything looks good :-) It's amazing how much enjoyment one can get out of just watching things existing! :-) Yay for simple joys!