We Really Are Gardeners...Kind Of, Sort Of

Dear Em,
We have a flower & vegetable garden this year! It didn't happen exactly how we planned. You probably think that our attempt at growing flowers & veggies from seeds was a great success. It wasn't. I was so excited about giving those seeds life, I probably over watered the heck out of everything, & only about a 5th of our seeds sprouted anything. To correct my over watering issue, I mostly stopped watering the plants that were growing. That killed almost all of the sprouts we had...except for one that we think might be a zucchini...we're not really sure.

So, how did we create a fantastic flower & vegetable garden? Well, Nonnie & Papi came to the rescue. We've had a small square patch of land in our yard that was probably once a garden. Since we moved in, it's been an overgrown patch of mess. For years Daddy said he was going to make it a garden, & for years it sat in our yard like an eyesore. Last year Uncle Jared cleared it out. He took out the sharp, metal posts that lined it & the weeds that filled it. By this June, it was filled with weeds again.

That was when Nonnie & Papi stepped in. I shared that I wanted to create a garden, but I had no idea what I was doing. I wanted a mix of plants in the patch of land & also in planters. I was willing to start new with the planters each year but wanted plants in the ground that were low maintenance & come back each & every year. We went to Home Depot & Nonnie picked out so many flowers & plants of different heights & colors, there were people in the store that thought our three (yes three) carts were Home Depot displays.

Nonnie & Papi pretty quickly agreed that I had no idea what I was doing when it came to creating the garden. I would try, but they kept saying, "here, just give it to me." I mostly just bank rolled the project & sat around & watched them work their magic.

The only thing they really trusted me to do is to place the step stones that would become our walkway to the hose. They also let me lay out the mulch. Ha!

Next we added some planters. While Nonnie was the one who did all the planting, at least they trusted me to decorate our planters. Every year we've painted planters for your teachers. This year we finally made some for us.

We bought a tomato plant & placed it in the middle of our garden. Then we added a barrel planter (to hide our septic access) that Nonnie filled with basil & cilantro & flowers (& what we think is a zuchinni we started to grow from a seed). Lastly, I purchased a vertical planter (it wasn't as large as I thought it would be & I just purchased a second one that we will put up next year) that Nonnie filled with peppers & herbs & zucchini & eggplant. 

It's the best kind of garden for me, because I don't have to do anything to it. Nonnie waters & prunes everything, & I just enjoy the sight of the flowers & taste of the herbs (& hopefully eventually the veggies). Between our new patio & our amazing vegetable & flower gardens, our backyard has become a fun oasis that sometimes I can't believe is ours.

I love you so,

Mommy