I am so excited for our garden this year.

Let me preface this by saying I am not an accomplished gardener. I have not successfully grown anything except some patio tomatoes, once. Well I suppose there was the time I grew some potatoes in our back yard and got enough for one meal. But that’s it. Last year, we put in a garden but it was so late in the summer that we got a few tomatoes. It was a flop. So, I’m pretty excited because this is our first year of really trying. 

It often comes in handy that Dad lives just a few miles from here and has all kinds of toys. He has a little tractor and was able to borrow a tiller from a friend.

I got very excited and ordered about $40 worth of seed from Park Seed. If you haven’t ever purchased seed before, and potentially never gardened before… $40 is a fair amount of seed. Needless to say the list of things I thought would be a fantastic idea got long. Here’s what made the list:

• Beets
• Carrots
• Green Beans
• Broccoli
• Brussel Sprouts
• Cucumber
• Kale
• Spinach
• Edamame
• Zucchini
• Spaghetti Squash
• Tomatoes (several varieties)
• Basil
• Cilantro
• Lavender
• Peppermint
• Sage
• Thyme

I’m exhausted just typing it.

There are certain things you can start inside and others you should sow directly in the ground. For my non-gardeners, “sow” means plant… WHY DON’T THEY JUST SAY PLANT?? I don’t know. But if I want to be taken seriously I have to use the lingo. And even then, I’m fairly certain most gardeners will see I’m a complete novice here.

Also, there’s this whole thing about the timing and planting and DIFFERENT INSTRUCTIONS ON EVERY PACKAGE, WEBSITE, BOOK!! It’s no wonder people like my mother in law and sister in law actually majored in horticulture in college. It’s too much to keep straight for my brain.

So no promises on what we actually get. But it should be fun.

I also bought potatoes, onions and strawberry plants at Tractor Supply last night. Because, well, just because.

As you can see the beets didn’t come up. I don’t know if they just didn’t really come up or if I didn’t plant them and thought I did? It was really late that night.