Growing a garden

I'm so excited that we decided to get a greenhouse this year! We were trying to figure out what to do with our new yard, it's a 1/2 acre of endless possibilities! For us that is huge, we feel like we have a little bit of the country life here in the city. We started out with some fun stuff for the kids and moved on to getting our fun going. Gardening! Growing our own veggies has been on our list for a while now.

My little guy loves to go pick peppers and beans from his Grandma's garden so he is just as crazy about the idea of a greenhouse as we are. Not only do we get to enjoy the fresh food, we get to have some great bonding and learning experiences with him. The other kids think it's cool, but I'm pretty sure Myles (2) will be a chef one day. He loves everything about food, including growing and cooking it! Myles and I water and check our plants daily, my husband takes him to fertilize it when it's time. It turns out I'm also the official "bug checker" too, Myles makes me check for anything creepy before he heads in.

We started this adventure over Mother's Day weekend. We bought a variety of things that we always use for cooking. I'm especially excited about the sweet peppers and tomatoes, and of course the salsa garden! It seems like the sweet peppers and snow peas are adjusting nicely to their pots, they're growing fast! The other plants are looking good, just not producing good eats as quickly as I'd like. Myles is definitely learning about patience, he is so eager to pick something and send pictures to Grandma! I'm learning patience too, I'm just ready for fresh salsa! We are still also learning a lot about the whole gardening process as we go and the Michigan weather has been much cooler than the normal temps this time of year.




What we have discovered so far is that pot placement is everything! My husband has already moved things around a few times because we didn't realize the growth rate and height of some of the plants. Once we get that just right we can relax a bit and things will really take off. We've had luck growing tomatoes in a pot before, and they were delicious. This is a bit more complicated than just tending to one pot though, but I think the greenhouse will help keep everything consistent as far as environment for healthy plants. Kevin also put an automatic arm on the window. It opens as the heat builds pressure so that there's no guessing when to let fresh air in. Once it's cool enough the arm will close it too. That's been a big help!

Another thing that's key to growing vegetables...

A lock, to keep these two busy bodies out.








I am looking forward to writing about progress over the summer and of course making some great recipes with our goodies. This topic will be a regular part of my blogging schedule and I hope you look forward to hearing about it too! I'd love to hear about your gardening experiences, and maybe share some tips!

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