Gardening Rocks!

Since moving into our house a year ago, I began planning all the cool gardening I would do now that we have a yard. I did lots of flowers of all kinds and loved every minute of it. There is nothing quite like watching the plants you place in the ground grows and bloom.

There is something harmonious and Zen like when you are one with nature like that. Hands in the dirt, pulling weeds and then later partaking in the joy of cutting and sharing the blooms. It shows how all things are connect at the most basic of levels.
To me the garden is a sacred place. No phones, video games, no TV. Just your hands, often on your knees digging, planning, weeding. All is in balance and right with the world.

This year in addition to the various flower gardens we also decided to try our hand at a veggie garden. We started in late April planting seeds in peat moss and top soil in little containers made for starting plants. It had been unseasonably warm that weekend so it got us pretty psyched to start. We planted 5 different kinds of squash, pumpkins, 3 kinds of tomatoes, watermelon, 4 kinds of beans, sunflowers, cucumbers, strawberries, carrots, different kinds of bell peppers, banana peppers, cayenne peppers, and jalapeños. We had no idea what were doing of if any of them would make it. And to make matters even more interesting the following Tuesday it snowed.

Well time passed, we kept watering the little containers and making sure they got plenty of sunshine. They covered my entire kitchen table as we nurtured each one of the little spots. We began seeing sprouting, first with the beans then the squash. They plants got big enough and the weather got warm enough that we moved the trays to the back porch.

They got a little bigger, so big they were overflowing the trays. It was time to put them in the ground. John picked up some lumber and dug out an 8x8 garden. We tilled in top soil and put everything in the ground. At first it looked like we made the garden too big.

We continued to water, feed and nuture the plants. And in return they grew. The time between putting them in the ground is 30 days and wow what a difference. Next year we know to have a bigger garden and have 2 types of gardens. One for straight plants and one for vines.

The squash began squashing the other plants. Our beans aren't doing that well, but we have more squash blooms (which means actual squash in a few weeks) then everything. The tomatoes are both bloomed and with green tomatoes. The sunflowers are around 5 ft tall. The carrots and other things are in the growing process. The strawberries have produce 3 strawberries already and more blooms on them.

In the next few months we are going to be able to eat many of the fruits of our labor and we can't wait. There will be zucchini breads, salsas, and pumpkin pies. More fresh veggies then we will know what to do with so we will be sharing with everyone we know.

Which brings me back to the comment I made earlier about us all being connected at that basic level, "When you share your wealth with others, it comes back ten fold." I believe that. And the wealth you receive is as much an internal wealth as an external. We all need a little wealth, especially on