Spring Garden 2010

Since discovering how cooking fuels my soul I've felt a strong urge to complete the process by growing my own food.  Earlier this Spring, if that's what one can call this crazy weather, my son and I started our first home garden.  We planted 2 types of bell peppers, zucchini, cumcumbers, strawberries and some herbs as well as some annual flowers.  We are also growing some tomatoes that we inherited from my Grandfather.

I have found gardening to be an exciting hobby.  I look forward to checking out the garden every day and am amazed by the progress.  Not only is it fun, it's cheap!  Yes, the initial investment of the EarthBox was expensive, but it can be used over and over again for years to come.  I plan to add a new box each year to expand the garden with new goodies.  Each veggie seedling only cost about $1-$2 plus the cost of soil, not bad when you consider the cost of buying veggies in the store.  The added benefit is that I know the food is being grown with organic soil and no pesticides.

Below are some photos of the progress.  Click on each photo to see a larger image.

Here are our strawberries.  They were purchased pre-planted at a local nursery.

These were our planting supplies.  We went with an EarthBox for the veggies since we rent our property I didn't want to kill the existing grass by building a garden bed over it.

On the left side are the bell pepper seedlings.  On the right the cucumbers are on top and the zucchini are on the bottom.  They were so small!

These are our herbs we're growing cilantro, rosemary, basil and oregano.  Yuuuumy!

Here's my son being my little helper planting the flowers.

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Now for the progress.  Here are photos of the current state of the garden, it's been approximately 3-4 weeks since we planted.  Things are growing like crazy!

Mmmm mmm mmm the strawberries are growing nicely.  Got a couple that are turning red already.  Can't wait to bite into them!  Check out the close-up below.

Check out the size of these veggies.  The zucchini is really taking over.  I'm probably going to have to replant the cucumbers so they can get some sun.  You can't even see them in the upper right.

Got these tomatoes from my 90 year-old Grandfather. He and my son have been planting tomatoes the last 3 years.  This year my Uncle planted them on their behalf and we took them home to make sure they are getting enough sunshine and water.



Check out the cilantro growing like a weed.  Cant' wait to make some guacamole with it this weekend!!

Last but not least here is a super cute photo of my little garden helper.  Shakes, one of my two babies, decided to hang out in the sun while I photographed the garden this afternoon.