My little Garden

One of the reasons we wanted to move to the country was because we wanted space for a big garden.  Living in the HOA had been the biggest challenge for me, I was suppose to ask permission to plant things, come up with a detailed plan and submit it to the HOA Board for review and approval...did I?  No, I thought it was silly...I planted what I wanted to plant and got compliments on the yard on a regular basis.  Hardly anyone planted anything in there yards, there was very little landscaping in any of the backyards on the walking trail.  I got in trouble numerous times with the HOA, and, well I was tired of dealing with their rules.  We kept our property looking very good, but getting ticketed for having empty pots on the back porch really pissed me off!  They weren't really empty, they had perennials in them...and I had to move them, they were heavy.

I wanted to plant at least a few things the first spring we were in the country house.  We had been working a lot on the inside of the house so I knew that it would have to be kind of small scale the first year.  We had a number of cinder blocks from the rain barrels at the Dallas house, we used them to make a small raised bed.  I dug out the grass and we got some garden soil and compost and mixed it up.  We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, and peppers to start.

My little garden, freshly planted

I ended up using a variety of materials to try and keep the dogs out of it, they really liked to lay in the fresh dirt and dug a few things up.  I selected an area that got morning and some afternoon sun but not a lot of sun late in the afternoon.  It need up being a really good spot, the plants did really well.

A few weeks later

The plants were really doing well in the chosen spot...so well that it got crowded really quickly.  We did get a lot of tomatoes and several cantaloupe, enough cucumbers for salads...and a lot of watermelons on the vine.  I never grew watermelon, they started splitting before they got ripe.  I am going to try a different spot this year...far away from the tomatoes!