The Cammilleri Corner: Garden Round Two

Some of you may remember that a few months ago we decided we wanted to try our hand at a garden. It went something like this...build frame, buy cheap dirt(who would pay lots of money for dirt??), get a few packets of seed of things we like to eat, let kids sprinkle them in, hope for the best. Well...many weeks, and only one tomato later, we determined that we needed some help. All that work, and we got one tomato out of the whole garden. Basil died, wind and sun battered the tomatoes, carrots are in there somewhere growing SLOWLY, and the cucumbers, of which Ellie planted way too many, are taking over. No cucumbers to pick yet, but the vines have suffocated the tomato plants and are setting up home on their cages, they are climbing over the fencing and along the ground. We still have hopes of having some cucumbers some day from our first garden.

After seeing pictures of a friends garden, and their plentifiul vegetables, that were planted same time we did ours...we realized we needed help. We deffinitely did something wrong. She recommended the book they used called "Square Foot Gardening" which is all about growing enough vegetables for our whole family, in a very small space. We read up on what to plant when, how many seeds to use, which can be trained to climb, what blend of soil to use, and we went for round two. Wow, what a difference! It rain every day for a week right after we planted, and by the showers cleared and we got out to check the seeds, we had plants!! Not just sprouts, real plants!! Yes, the larger ones we bought and transplanted, but the wax beans have come in, the zucchini and acorn squash are well on their way. I guess the special recipe of dirt was worth it. And yes, as soon as it was planted, we were back to Home Depot to get more fencing. Matthew thought he had a great new place to dig.