It’s been a long time since I grew a vegetable and flower garden in the ground—at least 13 years. But I find it so rewarding to make a meal from the bounty of fresh garden produce! I grew up on home-grown vegetables. The taste far exceeds the flavor of store-bought food! I have a memory from childhood of being served bought frozen mixed vegetables while we were eating a meal away from home. I could barely choke them down and remembered thinking that if this is what people who don’t have gardens have to eat, it’s no wonder that so many people don’t eat enough vegetables! But alas, other than the corn and broccoli that we get in season from my youngest brother, I have had to serve my family frozen store-bought vegetables for many years.

But if all goes well, we should have fresh-fom-the-garden vegetables this summer! This week, we started planting in the garden next to my parents’ house. The location is not as convenient as I would like (we live at the base of that mountain showing in the photo below—almost 20 minutes away), but it is better than nothing, and it gives us an excuse to visit them frequently. (Note: During this time, we are not going into their house! We are still maintaining social distancing outside while there, which made my 2-year old very sad on this past visit, when she wanted to go inside with Grammy.)

I looked at the weather for this week and saw that Monday was to be a lovely sunny day, so we went over to start putting seeds into the ground. I do need to go back at some point to plant some more seeds in potting soil in the greenhouse, but for now, we direct-sowed lettuce, peas, beets, kale, carrots, and spinach.

Dad had started by making the first row in the garden for us. He and Mom gave me the following gardening tips:

1) Put water in the row before putting the seeds in. It provides moisture without packing down the soil on top of the seeds.

2) Lightly cover the seeds with planting soil instead of dirt to make it easier for the seeds to sprout through to the top.

So, Ellie was thrilled to water the rows, and then we both sowed the seeds. I know that we will have a lot of thinning to do because we put in way too many seeds—especially the tiny seeds of carrots and even the beets.

Ellie putting water into the row before sowing seeds.

The rows we planted in the garden soil. We will be planting sweet potatoes and potatoes and flowers in this section also. We will be putting tomatoes, squash, watermelon, cucumbers, and more where the plastic covers the soil. The plastic helps with … — The rows we planted in the garden soil. We will be planting sweet potatoes and potatoes and flowers in this section also. We will be putting tomatoes, squash, watermelon, cucumbers, and more where the plastic covers the soil. The plastic helps with moisture and weed control.

We also planted lettuce and spinach and carrots and beets in the raised beds beside the garden.

Every day this week, Ellie has asked my parents how the garden is doing when we talk on the phone. She is so worried about not being able to keep an eye on it every day herself.

I am thankful that there are other activities near the garden to keep Emma busy. Between the swing and the sandbox, she will have something to do while Ellie and I work in the garden.

And in addition to the fun of working in the soil and the satisfaction of growing food, this view from standing in the garden is food for my soul…

And on the way home, I pulled off the road to get these pictures of the canola blooming in a field owned by my extended family. Is there any wonder why blue, white, yellow, and green are my favorite colors?

Stay tuned to see how our garden goes this year. And let me know if you have any questions! If I don’t have the answers, I will ask someone who does…

Planting a Garden