How Does Your Garden Grow?

I have always loved the IDEA of gardening. I love having lots of greenery around. It's usually so beautiful! Plus, it's the hippie thing to do. And I kind of fancy myself a hippie. But the practice of it? Well, there's a lot of dirt and bugs and it's takes a lot of effort. Plus you have to actually remember that you have plants. I can handle my dog - there is no such thing as forgetting to feed her because she does not let you forget. But a plant? I could forget to water a plant for weeks. And it never would say anything. It would just sit there and silently die. Many a houseplant has died an untimely death due to my negligence.

My father has the worst black thumb of anybody I've ever met. It's not for lack of trying. He reads gardening books and magazines in the winter to try to get tips. Every year he really gives it his all and then fails miserably year after year - or at least the last 25 of them that I remember. It's comical actually. We lived in Kansas when I was younger and he tried to grow sunflowers (which are the state flower). Despite his best efforts, the best one he ever grew was about 6inches tall, yet they grew wild to full height in the field across the street from our house. At least he has a sense of humor about it now. Last week I overheard a friend ask him what he was growing in his garden - he replied "rabbits and deer mostly".

So obviously, given my past and family history, I decided to try my hand at gardening this year. And miraculously, it's not a complete failure (which means that it's a win)!

I built a raised bed, which is probably the reason for my minimal success. I added landscape fabric and hardware cloth underneath to keep out any burrowing pests and weeds. And then built it 12" up from the ground. I'm a little bit ridiculous, so I painted the bed bright yellow. Then I just filled it with dirt and plants - and they GREW!

So Much Garden Soil!

Another credit to my success unfortunately is the sudden appearance of hunting instincts in BellaBeagle. As soon as I started building the raised bed, she started ruthlessly killing baby rabbits. This is the 4th summer in the house, and rabbits have lived inside the fence this whole time. Until this year, she largely ignored them. I build a garden and suddenly she goes into over-protective mode? Weird.

Ruthless Killer Protecting My Garden

After Everything Was Planted

Eventually, the zucchini plant killed both green pepper plants, and the summer squash killed the orange and red pepper plants. One afternoon I went into a rage and ripped the summer squash out of the ground. (It's not my favorite.) I felt guilty about it immediately and tried to replant it into a separate pot - it died anyway. Otherwise, everything I planted has been successful so far. BellaBeagle ate all the strawberries though. I just can't believe I actually grew things!

Ignore the dead grass around the raised bed - I killed it because I am planning to surround it with stone. I'm just too lazy to follow through.