It's Official! We Have a Garden

While still starting this year's garden later than we wanted to (and I have no idea why), we were ahead of last year by several weeks, plus sprouting time. So when our big spring garden-starting weekend rolled around on Sunday, it was a whole lot easier than last year.

Laying the infrastructure up front really makes a difference.

Transplanting lettuce seedlings into a garden bed this weekend.
The brassicas in the seed tray went to a different spot.

My legs are killing me and I tweaked my knee somehow, but it was nevertheless a very fun Sunday spent gardening with the family.

We had a few dozen seeds started that we needed to transplant from the greenhouse. They included tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, kale, nasturtiums, and brussel sprouts, all of different types and varieties. The seeds weren't marked in the trays, so I guess we'll just see what pops up where. I also hope they all make it, as some of the seedlings were kept to long and were not in the ideal condition to begin with. A good watering and a few good rains should do the trick.

I also taught the kids how to transplant seedlings. They helped when my legs needed a break. I remember vividly doing this last year, and just planting seeds was easier, despite everything else being so much harder. Oh well.

Thing #1 helping me transplant nasturtiums.

"Directive?"

Wife and Thing #3 set up a "command center" for snacks and the notebook that mapped out the garden for us. We kept our kefir and kombucha beverages on the picnic table to cool down on the 90-degree afternoon.

The garden command center: epicenter of gardening activity.

We ended up getting all of the seeds planted. We did sections and rows this time instead of square-foot techniques. There's a place for that, but with our flowers, brassicas, cucurbits, and nightshades, we decided on rows.

A transplanted brassica. Could be broccoli, cauliflower, or brussel sprouts. We'll see!

The first row is nasturtiums, providing good brassica companion plants.

Tomato cages this year. That's a new feature.

Thing #2 even found a frog, and played with it in the sprinkler and slip-n-slide. All of the water flowed into a hole below the garden, making a nice little micro-habitat in which to release it.

He really enjoyed playing with the frog.

And everyone enjoyed the slip-and-slide!

All in all, it was a very successful outing. We got all of our seedlings transplanted, and some quality family time. And several weeks ahead of last year, too.