Pandemic gardening

Gardens are such a great distraction for kids, so the minute schools shut down I started one.

I am no regular gardener, but have been known to garden occasionally. When we first moved in we bought two raised beds (literally raised, they are like tables - this is so helpful for my bad back). These beds are pretty small but are enough to grow a few things every year. The last two years, we didn't grow anything because we've been doing other things. So we bought a bunch of dirt and filled them back up again and got them ready to go. Now, they are full of things!

A view of our two garden beds from our living room window (taken during the rain). You can see a little bump in our yard way out behind it, which is really what I was really taking a picture of originally - we had water accumulating in a sort of pillow under the grass that was coming from a pipe from one of our gutters! We actually had to go out and "pop" it!!! But that's a story for another day.

This one shows kale in the front (we just picked it), carrots behind that and then a bunch of cucumber.

This one is full of tomatoes. There seems to be a bunch of different kinds. We grew them from seeds that a friend gave us in an envelope labeled "assorted tomatoes" so it will be a surprise!!

These are the assorted seeds we got from a friend. So many different seeds, and so much fun waiting to see what grows!!

 I've never grown so many plants from seeds before, so it was kind of an adventure. I figured out that if you cut up a milk carton, it makes a great place to start some plants. I put 3-4 in each container and then had to pull the plants apart later, so maybe smaller sized containers would be better - but these were free and didn't require a store trip so worked for this year!

Our first go at sprouting seeds totally failed. I didn't get the holes cut in the bottom of the containers very well and the kids over exuberantly watered everything until they all met their sad death. 

We got more seeds, and cut bigger holes, and tried again. Almost everything grew the second time, though it was getting a little later in the season so things like the sugar snap peas never quite had a good season. But many other things, like kale and carrots and cucumbers and tomatoes, are doing just fine. 

Since we grew from seed we didn't really know how much would grow and ended up with a LOT more starters than we had room for in our little gardens. So, I started buying pots to put around the deck. We considered building a whole new bed in the yard but didn't know if we would keep up this kind of volume to make it worthwhile after this year. Besides, the pots around the deck meant we could easily watch the plants grow from our kitchen table, which has been especially fun.

A chili pepper! Almost ready to pick. We grew 5 kinds: Serrano, jalepeno, ghost, and two mysteries from our friend's seeds.

Chives! After our kids eat these, they smell like chives for hours.

sugar snap peas! These are my absolute favorite garden snack. I hardly got any this year because they went in too late, and the few we had were immediately picked and eaten by the kids, which both act like rabbits.

This pot is full of okra, and giant sunflowers. I probably tried to pack in too much to this one pot but I thought I'd try it. 

Basil! Another pick-and-eat favorite of mine and the kids. We also have peppermint growing under the deck, which sprung up on its own, and that is probably the biggest hit of all of them.

I also have about 4 more pots of tomatoes, and a bunch of pots that have just one okra or sunflower each. 

We tried and never succeeded at: marigolds (from seed), and beans and pumpkins (they were damaged by the wind in transit from a neighbor's house). We also had a really hard time with peppers and kale (I think the seeds were just old) - we planted about 30 seeds and got just two to grow of each, and it took about a month. The peppers were a complete surprise - I had given up and planted something else in the starter pots when they suddenly appeared one day. I still don't know what kind - we'll see!

Gardening has been WONDERFUL for the kids. It's a great distraction for a tantrums and bonding time for all of us. Everyone in the family is taking pride in what's growing and pitching in to help. My only complaint is that we don't have nearly enough - everything gets eaten before we even bring it inside!