03/26/10 My Early Mother's Day Gift

I have always dreamed of having a garden with big, juicy, fresh tomatoes. Whenever we'd go visit my dad's family in Utah, they always seemed to have the yummiest tomatoes, and I thought they were so lucky because they lived in Utah and could have a garden. Um, hellooooo, I live in California, one of the biggest agricultural states in the world. Just because me mom never gardened, doesn't mean we can't do it here. I was so excited to finally own a home and figure out the whole gardening thing. Last spring we planted some cherry tomatoes on the side of our house. It was nice to have, but I wanted big tomatoes. So I went to the garden store. They were having a special on all the things you need to start a tomato garden. So I bought it all! I also grabbed some other vegetables to try out as well! It was sitting in the backyard for a couple of days until Grant was able to put in the labor and clear out a space for it.

Here's the before picture


The area cleared out of grass

The kids helped out, too!

We put down a frame and black weed tarp (which we later learned was a mistake and pulled it up)

And here's the finished product. Too bad the file got corrupted when my computer crashed. But you can see the gates that the tomato plants go in. We also planted spinach, mixed greens, green leaf lettuce, green onions, basil, baby carrots, oregano, bell peppers, jalapenos. Thanks Grant and kids for the best Mother's Day present, ever! Now lets see if we can keep it up! Grant and the kids are in charge of watering it, and I'm in charge of weeding it. We have already learned (10 months later) that some veggies didn't turn out or aren't worth the effort. We've removed all the lettuces and the carrots and have planted strawberries, snap peas, canteloupe, cucumbers. Still waiting for them to start producing. It's definitely a learning experience, but the one thing that works without fail are the tomatoes! So now I've just got to figure out a way to keep them coming all year round!