Garden 101

As many of you know, I have wanted a vegetable garden for years, but have lacked the motivation... well I was just plain lazy. Oh, I tried to do it the quick and easy way... containers, was successful with two tomato plants at one point but neglect and lack of attention usually became my worst enemy. I had many excuses mind you, but regardless, the result was still the same... brown, whithered plant stems.

But, this year is different! This year, I have an awesome support system that won't let me neglect my garden! And to keep the fire lit beneath me!

I started small, just so I could start... I mean I HAD to do something! I had two half wine barrels sitting here, so I promptly set in to plant strawberries! Yippie! Strawberries! They looked so awesome and the kids helped and were excited.... unfortunately so were the stray cats. They really thought the new little box I planted for them was pretty cool! *sigh* OK, next idea... consult the advisers! Advisor 1 suggested *insert Indian(middle east, not American) type music*, 'If you build it up, they will not come'. So I headed off to Ace, where I promptly bought green bamboo sticks, bird netting and staples, for my staple gun.

I got home and quickly made a netted 'wall' around my strawberries! Mission accomplished! Cats stayed out! And we were excited..... unfortunately so were the birds! To set the scene, every morning Zack and I would head out to look at our wonderful strawberry plants. And for a 4 year old I'll let you know he was being quite patient. We had been keeping our eye on one particular strawberry that was an 'early bloomer'. One morning, this strawberry looked just about ready, so I promised Zackery that when we got home from school/work he could pick and eat our very first strawberry. There was much excitement in the air. As soon as I picked him up from pre-school all he could talk about was that strawberry! We couldn't get home soon enough. He jumped out of the car and ran to the backyard with me following close behind. When we reached the barrel... the look on that poor boys face.... *sigh*.... you see a bird had eaten our precious strawberry! Zack was devastated! (think rain scene from Shawshank Redemption where Tim Robbins stares up into the sky)

I guess when you get rid of the cats hanging around then other guests move in. And this wasn't your average bird either... he got pretty smart, (remember I did use BIRD netting). That silly bird would flutter around the edge of the barrel, land, then push the netting so he could reach the ripe strawberry. Long story short (too late), there were several attempts at keeping that nasty robin out of the strawberries. The above scene, happened twice more! grrrrr...

But now as you can see, I have grown wiser and we have been enjoying fresh strawberries regularly. Now the only problem with our strawberries is trying to make them last until we get inside... this doesn't happen often, especially when Zack is around!

And that robin? Well, he's still around. Just saw him again yesterday... but he hasn't figured out how to get to our strawberries..... yet!

That's enough for today, I will continue the garden drama later this week, hopefully by Wednesday. But here's a preview.....

Well, strawberries are fine and all, but I need more!

But what to do? Before I was limited (yes, one of my excuses) because I was just a renter.... but THIS, this is MY house, and I can do what I want! Right? Right! So I decided to build a raised garden bed. I mulled around different ideas, rock walls, cinder block, pressure treated wood, but finally settled on redwood. The kids and I spent a lot of time walking the aisles at Home Depot and Lowes. I even walked around taking pictures of price tags and wood with my phone. *rolling eyes* I had some strange excitement building up inside me, and pictures of planks of wood on my cell phone was some how going to help. Lol