Building Our Garden: Part 2

If you haven't read last weekend's adventures, click here.

After building the retaining walls and procuring some free dirt last Saturday/Sunday, we spent the week staring longingly out the back door, dreaming of what we'd plant once we finished the garden.*  We took plenty of measurements, calculated the volume of the dirt we'd still need, thought up a few potential irrigation schemes, and made a list of what seeds and transplants to buy when we next made it to the HD.  We knew we'd be finishing things up on Saturday, as we had an early run, the City of Peoria race, the Pioneer Days 5K.  We figured we'd already be gross, so why not finish up the back yard?

Hooray for small races!

I took second in my age group and Chris took first in his!

Since we knew the race would take some time in the early morning hours of Saturday, we hit up WalMart and the HD on Friday night for their equivalent of happy hour (seed packets 2 for 1!**).  WalMart had single cubic foot bags of topsoil for around $1.50 each, so we threw 20 of those in the Prius as well as some gardening gloves, a birthday card for Dad, and a pack of Starburst Jelly Beans.  God, those things are awesome.  We dropped the goods back home, then took Rosie up to the HD to pick up 9 bags (3 cubic feet each) of Kellogg's organic topsoil/compost mix.  We also found our irrigation items at HD (mainly 1/4" soaker hose, T-joints, end caps, and other things of that nature), as well as some seeds and plants for transplanting.

After the race on Saturday, we headed home (after a quick swing by Paradise for some Cinnamon Crunch bagels for second breakfast***) and into the backyard!  

Time to work!

Chris started dumping the larger bags of topsoil/compost into the smaller planter and mixing things up with the mixer tool (yes, that's the official name of the tool)...  

Mix, mix, mix.

...while I emptied the contents of our own composter into a wheelbarrow to be placed into the larger planter.  We weren't quite sure how the compost would turn out, but overall, it looked pretty good.  After that, I hopped into the larger planter and started emptying smaller bags of dirt.

I don't always climb inside a planter with giant bags of dirt.

But when I do, I prefer to wear my running skirt.

As usual, Kaylee supervised.

"Look Mom, I'm composting!"

After the planters were filled with dirt, it was irrigation time!  Chris worked on adding valves from the drip system line to the planters, so we could easily turn them off if we decided to stop watering the planters entirely (say, between planting seasons).  My job was trimming the soaker hose into the proper length and installing end caps and flow plugs on alternate ends of the hosing.  These duties also included holding the pile of soaker hoses next to my head, hollering for Chris, and pretending to be Cosima from Orphan Black.

"I'm just following the science, Sarah!"

After the irrigation was settled, we FINALLY got to the good part - the actual planting.  Since it's going to be pyscho hot here in a few months, we knew we could start some plants from seed, but other needed to be transplanted, if we wanted to enjoy them before the 110+ temps killed them off.

My transplants (from left):

Basil, jalapeno, thyme, cilantro, and sage.

The seeds (left to right, top to bottom):

Sumter cucumbers, sugar baby watermelon, howden pumpkin, yellow croockneck squash,

marketmore cucumber, black beauty eggplant, darkstar zucchini, purple, tomatillo,

oregano, and chives.

Planting the pumpkin seeds

The smaller planter, all finished!

Watching the humans work is exhausting!

That's all for now!  Hopefully, future updates will include grown vegetables!

Later!

Amy

* Or at least, I did.  Chris would look over from time to time and slowly shake his head at me.

** Actually, they were.

*** Ain't no party like a hobbit party because at a hobbit party you eat like every 2 hours.