Our Garden Part 1

We had some readers ask if we garden. The answer is yes! In past years, I have grown a few tomato and pepper plants, but this year, we decided to expand our garden and try out hand at growing a variety of vegetables.

Our initial hope was to save money by growing our own vegetables. With inflation, this seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, we have now spent close to $1000 on lumber, soil, plants, fertilizer, and other supplies.

But it’s not all about the money. We are excited about providing pesticide-free vegetables for our family, as well as teaching Little Buddy the value of hard work and giving him a basic science lesson. Mr. Handsome also hopes that growing his own vegetables will help him eat more salads. And the beds can be used in future years, so perhaps one day we will be at a point where our garden saves us money on groceries.

We started preparing everything in early spring. Mr. Handsome spent hours building the raised beds (three smaller ones and two bigger ones). There are a lot of deer in the area, so we knew we needed to make a solid plan to protect our plants. We also have a lot of tall trees on the property, so placing the beds in the sunniest spot was a must.

With the price of wood so high, Mr. Handsome used two logs for one of the beds. He and Little Buddy picked up a bulk load of dirt, and Little Buddy thought it was so cool to watch the big tractor dump the mud into the back of our truck.

The three smaller beds sit on a retaining wall, but to keep the deer out of the two larger ones, which sit on the ground, we had to get creative. For one, we ordered heavy duty, nylon netting made for golf courses, and Mr. Handsome built a PVC frame. For the other, he used fence posts and chicken wire.

We will continue to update you on our garden progress. How many readers are gardening this year? Is it going well?