garden updates.

ok. so you might have noticed that i've spent all of this week telling you about things that we did last weekend. what can i say? that's kind of how we roll. our weeknights tend to be filled with things like laundry and dinner and jazzercise and reading and (sometimes) cleaning and tv and all sorts of other boring daily-grind type of things that honestly aren't all that exciting. our exciting stuff just naturally tends to happen on the weekends, when we have full days all to ourselves to do whatever we want to do and tackle bigger projects and not worry as much about bedtime and just generally depart from the regimented schedule that is our monday thru friday.

so that being said, i havent really told you anything about Mark's weekend, which was largely spent focusing on the garden. if you remember back a few months to our freakishly-mild winter, he was able to get his garden bed built and filled with dirt in January. at that time, he just wrapped some wire mesh around the whole thing to keep it from becoming a community litter box for all the stray cats, and called it a day.

on Saturday, he made the wire cage more permanent, functional, and much better looking. the cage got stretched across the back of the bed and the two short sides, and stapled to the vertical support pieces. the front of the cage is now a separate piece that can be removed for easy access to the plants. it is held on by a few strategically placed screws that keep everything securely in place, but also allow Mark to lift the front panel off whenever he needs.

after he finished the cage, he spent a good deal of time actually planting things in the garden! he has been reading up on all the different types of seeds that he is planting, paying attention to when he is allowed to put them outside based on what can survive the last few frosts of the season. most everything was started indoors, sprouted on damp paper towels or in little pots by the window, but some were planted by just putting the seeds straight into the dirt. and so far, so good! things are sprouting and growing!

i think this is the garlic.

i would have to ask Mark to be sure, but as far as i can remember so far there is broccoli, lettuce, carrots, garlic, and maybe something else outside in the bed. we still have tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers that are growing inside for now, but on nice days they get to be outside for a while too before they get taken back in for the night. i wish they would stop bringing so many ants back into the house with them at the end of the day, but they seem to like this system pretty well, and are growing like mad. 

right now they're all staked up with pencils and twine.

so that's our garden. we're hoping to keep it alive and actually be able to eat the things that we grow. i am doing my part by taking care of photo-documentation, keeping my black thumb away from any actual growing thing, and thinking of fun new ways to cook and eat all these veggies in the future.

i hope you all have a good weekend! it's supposed to rain here, which is fine by me since i'll be spending all my time packing and cleaning and trying really really hard not to completely freak out as i attempt to cross off all the things on my pre-vacation to-do list. (and maybe i'll finally make some time to repaint my toenails!)