Square foot garden

we decided to try our green thumb out this spring and plant a garden.  now i say green thumb with tongue in cheek because i am not very good about remembering to water the few plants we already have so taking on a garden will be quite a challenge.

i did a little research and decided that a square foot garden would be a manageable introduction to the world of gardening for us rutherfords.  so first we had to decide on a sunny spot.  in our very tree-shaded backyard this was bit of a challenge, but here's the designated spot.

so first we had to gather our supplies....several bags of miracle-gro garden soil.

and wherever there is dirt, these jokers are not far behind.  check out their gardening tools of choice.

we bought weed block to put down at the bottom of our square foot garden to keep out weeds and grass.

and to make our garden project even easier, we found this raised garden kit with all the wood pre-cut and ready to go!

it was quite easy to put together and it looks so cute!

the next part was a little tougher, that's why i let this cute guy take over.  it's important to have a level place for your garden so that when you water, it will soak in and not run off.

the back part of our backyard is a little sloped so it took a little digging on the higher end to make a level bed.

next we placed our our little raised bed kit in and covered the bottom with the weed block.

and then we poured in all the dirt.  the boys particularly enjoyed this part!

burrito and noodle took their little hand trowels and leveled out the dirt.  once that was done, we divided the bed into 12, 1 foot sections and decided where we would plant each vegetable.

we let the boys dig the holes to plant the plants, and it was so cute to watch how serious they took their jobs.

and here is the finished product!  we planted a roma tomato plant, a grape tomato plant, cilantro, okra, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper and lots of onions!

and later we added a hanging strawberry plant.

and here is a recent picture of our garden.  we won't win any contests but our plants have grown and they are starting to produce!

and some fruits of our labor....grape tomatoes

 a roma tomato

and a strawberry!

if nothing else, our kids have a better appreciation for where food comes from, and they no longer think it just appears at the grocery store.  i am excited to use some of our produce in our homemade salsa that we make weekly.  we've had a really great time watching the plants grow and checking on them daily.  in fact, burrito came running in today to tell me that we have a little baby bell pepper finally growing.  this is such a fun family project, and i'm glad we jumped in to try it out.