how does your garden grow?

When we were house hunting over six years ago, we were having a heck of a time. The market was red hot back then, and you almost had to hear of a lead before it went on the market because by the time you got there, you'd have to beat out ten other offers. Such was the case with our house. We probably looked at 25 houses in a variety of locations, and we were growing frustrated. Either they weren't in the school district we wanted, or they didn't have a finished basement like we wanted, or the yard sucked, or they needed way more work than we could put in with having a one year old in tow...the list went on and on and we searched for months.


When our realtor called and told us to drive by this house one night after work, I knew we had to see it. The first thing I noticed was the front porch and envisioned rocking chairs and tall glasses of iced tea, watching the kids play in the hose. Then I saw a glimpse of the big, flat fenced-in backyard and saw Dylan running and playing throughout his childhood (back then there was just Dylan, no Logan). The icing on the cake was the screen porch on the back of the house. Its an extension of our family room and we've spent many an afternoon, evening and family gathering out there sharing drinks and stories. It fell within a fantastic school district, and was within walking distance to the local library and pool. We quickly put forth our best offer, beating out all the other offers already on the table.

Six years later, we still love it here. Great neighbors, great community, great schools and a house we'll never grow out of.

Our yard is big enough for a nice big playset the boys enjoy everyday:

And we recently landed a free trampoline, thus adding another level to the backyard recreational fun:

But perhaps the most exciting addition to our backyard is the garden Andrew put in this spring. I've had nothing to do it, its been his baby, and we're all excited to see how it does. He followed the Square Foot Method (as recommended by many of our experienced gardening friends), and he's created both a homemade composter and rainbarrel. We're excited about being green at our house these days, and we hope to be enjoying the gardens' bounty all summer and fall. Getting the kids to try some of these veggies will prove challenging, I'm sure, but maybe some good motivation to earn Wii points.

Here are some photos of Andrew's totally-from-scratch labor of love:

The upside down buckets contain different types of tomatoes: cherry's, Mr. Stripey heirloom, and cascading grape tomatoes. In the top of buckets are various herbs. The bottom part of this garden patch contains cabbage (red and white), eggplant, peppers, arugula, and yellow pear tomatoes.

In this bed, he planted broccoli, cauliflower, hot and sweet peppers.

In this middle bed, he has collard greens, sugar snap peas, wild onions, stevia and sunflowers.

Logan helping the sunflowers along...

This last plot contains green beans, cantaloupe, roma tomatoes and more sunflowers. In the background you can see Andrew's homemade rain barrel, which has been getting a work out with all our rain lately.

We may decide to change some veggies and fruits out throughout the summer depending on what's doing well and what isn't. I think its a great learning experience for the kids on so many levels, and I know Andrew is really enjoying learning a whole new hobby.