Attack of the Killer Squash...

The zucchini plants are taking over the garden. They are getting huge. Never having grown zucchini before, I had no idea that they would start to take over. I'm so glad that we only planted two of them. I'm sure that even with just the two plants that Dan and I will be up to our eyeballs in squash at some point in the coming months. I will need to start making every zucchini recipe that I can think of or dig up in my cookbook collection. But more on that in the future.

The Garden Is Growing

I can't believe it but the garden is growing. I have only attempted a vegetable garden once before and that was in my tweens. It was a sad attempt indeed and nothing grew. So, it is very satisfying years later to actually have a vegetable garden and watch it grow. It changes daily and I'm in awe.

We even ate some of the arugula and basil last night in our dinner. Now that is local.

Building a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden - Part III

I am already remiss in maintaining this blog. It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. In that time, Dan and I finished building the garden. It was a lot more work than we thought it would be.

Dirt...I mean soil. We had 3 cubic yards of a compost/topsoil mix delivered by SoilDirect.com. Actually, we think they delivered more than that. It was hell to move all of that soil to the beds in the backyard. No wheelbarrow, which made for back breaking work. We were exhausted but we got it done. And, we had leftover soil. We ended up using it for our other garden beds. They desperately needed it.

The next step was acquiring pea gravel for the paths. We decided to shop local like we did for the lumber for the beds. In fact, we shopped at the same place, Eagle Rock Lumber & Hardware. Their customer service was great...helpful and friendly. I was so glad to be able spend money locally rather than at a big box store like Home Depot or Lowes. It took 30 bags of pea gravel to fill the paths. That was 2 trips in my Jetta. All the time I was wishing I had a truck.

Once that was done,Dan and I couldn't wait to go get plants. So, it was off the Burkard's Nursery in Pasadena. Again, we stayed local and avoided the big box stores or the chain nurseries like Armstrong's. Burkard's had an amazing selection of vegetables and herbs to choose from, including a lot of heirloom varieties. So we loaded up and headed home to start planting.


Now, we just have to keep those little babies alive and thriving. And, learn how to properly harvest celery.

Building a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden - Part II

I just ordered our topsoil/compost mix to be delivered this Saturday. I was shocked at how expensive topsoil is. But, after doing a lot of research, I found a service called SoilDirect.com. They are almost half the cost of having any of the chain nurseries like Armstrong's Garden Centers deliver. Sure, they just dump it all in your driveway but a least there are not all of those plastic bags to dispose of.

Dan and I are finally starting to get excited about this project since we are getting closer to having the beds completed. May be we will even be able to begin planting this weekend. We can dream.

Building a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden - Part I

Dan and I have discussed building a raised bed vegetable garden since we moved to our house a little over 3 years ago. And, finally, we are making it happen. I spent most of Saturday in the backyard cleaning things up. Dan, God love him, went to our local lumber yard (no Home Depot for us...if we can help it) and procured the fir boards for the beds. Then he came home and built all four of them. We did have the help though of these amazing raised bed corners from Gardener's Supply Company in Vermont.

Now, we just need to:

• lay the weed cloth
• position the beds
• lay in about 64 cu. ft. of organic soil
• put down pea gravel on the paths
• plant veggies and herbs

Okay, it's a lot more than just that. But, may be...just may be, by the end of next weekend, we might be done. I can dream.