home gardening for people who don't home garden.

post by casey.

putting something in the dirt and having it GROW...is pretty neat. I may be obsessed with the idea of me...little ol' me...being able to 'grow' things in general. I can grow babies pretty hard and so maybe growing things...is my 'thing'?;)

i did not put any thought or prep into this project and it turned.out.awesomeeeeee. My favorite kinda project;) - minus that rogue 's' in basil...but I just turned the jar around and started over!:)  

*if you're a die-hard-3-wick-candle-lover from Bath & Body Works, then you may have already recognized these jars. I've invested a bit of $$ into those glorious candles and I was finally able to say to Jacob: "SEE...SEEEEEEE...totallyyyyyy worth it!!!!"

here's what I did:

- i sent Jacob to Menards to get all supplies

- i sent Jacob downstairs to spray-paint the jars

i'm getting to the part where I actually DID something;)

- i used these handy stamps to label the jars and because I didn't have an ink pad, I just used a sharpie to color on the stamps

- i read the back of the seed packages and planted them accordingly

courts has a great little set-up going - see post HERE - and she even involved the kids, which was super adorable. I did ask Homer if he'd like to help and showed him how fun it was to put the dirt in the jars!!! He opted to watch Guardians of the Galaxy instead. Team player.

so I forgot when it was that I did this...so I'm not sure when I should be expecting to see some growth. BUT I can tell you I've been watering them every day - which, I hear is necessary?!;) And I feel really good that this is totallyyyyyy going to work;) I'll report back.

this little project is a great start to our big garden. Kinda gets our toes wet a little before we have to really get to work on the 'real' one. And by 'we'...I mean, Courts. And by 'work'...I mean, I'll refill coffee and plant things too close together in crooked rows;)

see ya in a MONTH warm-garden-prep-weather!!! April, you're a dick.

the beginning of #smithsgrowshit2016

post by Courtney

the closer it gets to spring, the more I crave the garden. I miss my neighbor terribly. She was the rock foundation of our garden. to be honest, she did most of the garden. I was mostly there drinking coffee, making sure plants were evenly spaced, and occasionally removing rocks from rows. oh, and I did a bit of weeding. you know, the important stuff ;)

this will be the third year (I believe) we'll be gardening on our own. which means, we're going to try to harvest some beans this year. and maybe look for watermelons before October! 

looked back in my photostream... *correction: and maybe look for watermelons before November! jeepers. we maybe aren't the best at gardening.*

so we're gonna give it another shot this year. ha! I've got the itch so got some seeds and little greenhouse thingies. yeah, I'm a pro at this ;)

intense concentration. and how cute, they have matching double chins.

the kids love to help in the garden. 

for future reference, whenever I use the words "help" and "kids" in the same sentence, it's complete BS. and I'm not talking about a Bachelor of Science. 

sssooo I let them dump dirt in the containers and stir in the water. this is obviously the before photo of our planting. no one's crying. and the island is clean ;) 

I occupied the little two with bowls of dirt and spoons. as you can see, Will is just dumping his on the floor. but Drew enjoyed planting the ittttttty bitty seeds.

what we planted: 3 kinds of tomatoes (4th of July, Romas, and cherry), watermelons, carrots, and cosmos. you know, the essentials ;) planning to plant more tomatoes and I completely forgot peppers cause I want to actually make something out of the garden this year and that means salsaaaaa!!!

this is the more realistic island ;)

and not even a week later, we had our first sprouts! the kids thought it was the coolest thing. and I think it's amazing how you can actually grow something from seed. now just to keep them alive :| the first to sprout were the cosmos. I have no idea what we'll do with these, buttt we have cosmos.

I did learn a few things during this process... 
1) next time I'll choose bigger containers. the tomatoes might need to be transplanted once before they make it to the garden. I don't think the containers I got are quite big enough. 
2) no need to plant carrots early. ours are going to be stunted, short, and crooked. 
3) I may also do some of this during naptime next time  ;)

see some of our previous garden adventures here: 
#smithsgrowshit2015 #smithsgrowshit2014

and make sure to follow along this year here:
#smithsgrowshit2016