Our Grow Operation

A few weeks ago, when the weather was nicer, Paula and I got excited to start working out in the yard and start our first garden. So, I did a bit of research and picked up some lumber to build some raised beds. Meanwhile, Paula went to town on planting seeds for all sorts of soon-to-be delicious veggies (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, basil, onions, and more). She wasn't too sure how green her thumbs were, so she planted a ton of everything.

The next weekend, I borrowed a truck and picked up 2.5 yards of an herb garden soil mix from Cedar Grove. Paula and I did the back breaking work of hauling the soil by wheelbarrow around the house to the garden beds. After 2 full weekends, we had 2 pretty kick-ass 4' x 8' raised beds. I've been 'feeding' and 'energizing' the soil in preparation of the new plants by spraying various garden 'tonics' onto the soil as recommended by a master gardener in one of the many DVD's we've checked out from the library.

The next thing is to put in the garden starts, right...



Well, apparently there was still about 2 months of growing for these garden starts that Paula got going. Furthermore, her thumbs have turned out to be SUPER green. She only had a few seeds not germinate. So, we had to convert our smaller bedroom into a home made greenhouse to house all the garden starts that are going crazy!



After some discussion, we decided to build a new garden shed in the backyard. Actually, Paula didn't want a new shed (wasn't a priority) but I was a rude and unthoughtful husband and moved ahead with it anyway. So, I spent the next several weekends working on a new shed. While its just a shed, I didn't have any plans and wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do, so it took some time. Nevertheless, we're almost done! I still need to install the siding, add a gutter, and pimp out the inside with shelving. But, we finally had it ready for us to move our grow operation out there about 2 weeks ago after I installed 5 grow lights! (We go all out in the McJohnson household)





So, now we have tons of veggies that are going nuts in their new home and we're looking forward to mothers day when we're apparently able to put these babies in their fresh beds.