I finished planting our garden at leisure on Saturday.  Dan had to work at his side job again, so I was left to my own resources.  I've never planted the whole garden before.  It was fun.  The kids were great, and lasted all afternoon outside with minimal outbursts of crying and fighting.

I planted so much in that little plot of land.  Here's hoping I won't be just thinning it all out this time next month!  I canned some things last year, and it encouraged me so much to try to do more of the same.  Our main crop will be beets, beans, and snap peas.  We all love beets and beans, and I canned a little last year.  I'm hoping to be able to can just a little more this year.  The peas are tricky.  I've never had enough to freeze. We just eat them all up!  So we'll see.  They didn't grow so well last year.  I hope they do well this year.  And I love that a mound of cucumbers and zucchini give you so many veggies.  They're so space efficient!  Just my kind of thing.

I also had fun interspersing herbs and flowers in the garden for various reasons.  it also makes it look pretty.

All the while I was planting, I kept thinking of Dan, and wishing he were with me.  At the same time, trying to be confident in myself at gauging how deep and wide to plant things (I'm really bad at visualizing measurements-Dan's great at it...down to 1/16th of an inch!).  I kept thinking how he's taught me so much about gardening I never knew.  I learn best by watching others, and I was so happy that Dan has been there a part of our gardening all these years, and shown me so much on how to do things easier and better.  I know Dan doesn't quite have the same passion for gardening that I have, but I think he's really proud of our garden and happy about the yummy foods we get from it.

I drew a sketch of the garden plan when I was done.  I was quite satisfied with the finished product.

Today I watered the garden for the first time, using our revolutionary irrigation system (The barrel that collects rain water and has a hose running from it down the fence line to a spigot Dan attached to the bottom of the fence, down by the garden).  I was surprised when it rained last week, the barrel filled up completely from one good storm.  When I watered today, I thought it would use up most of the water, but I only used about a third of it.  And I was being pretty generous watering, so I thought.  The only drawback is the water pressure is slim to nil.  I can get the water to sprinkle out, instead of stream, with the help of a nozzle.  It's all really nice, it just takes a while to really soak the plants.  Dan, of course, knew all this, and suggested we just get a soaker hose to leave in the garden, and just let the water soak through to the plants, how ever long it takes.  We'll see.  I might enjoy taking my time watering.  Or it just might take too much time that I don't have.  Hmmm...right now I'm favoring taking the time to water, preferably after the kids go to bed!