There's a first time for everything...and a second

I have mentioned several times to most every person I ever talk to that I don't like being bored, and I go rather insane when I'm home ALL SUMMER. I often hear envious comments of the three months teachers get off from work every year, but I personally think I would do better on a year-round schedule. I think three weeks off at a time would be lovely...just long enough to have a real break and be ready to go back without having so much time that you no longer know what to do with yourself.

Or maybe it's just me.

Anyway, I'm hoping that this summer Jane will keep me somewhat more occupied than she did last summer (walking helps) and that being pregnant will limit my need for constant activity. But, trying to be proactive, we opted to plant a garden. Two reasons: one, it gives me a project to work on and watch over throughout the summer. Two, it gives me something to do while Jane plays outside. I get bored sitting out there watching and my energy level no where near matches hers at the moment, so now I can be occupied pulling weeds and whatnot while she plays. Conveniently, we have four large-ish planter boxes on our back patio, courtesy of whoever owns this particular condo (the rental management company says we're not allowed to know who. oh well).

I've never done any real gardening before. This is a first.

Before:

The tulips were nice, but all the other flowers basically amounted to lots and lots of weeds. We asked Chris's parents, Craig and Janet, to make a special trip to Logan to help us figure out what and how to plant the garden. They were very helpful. They even pulled all the weeds!


We spent $80 (gasp!) at Wal-Mart to buy tools, dirt, seeds and starters. This summer's garden is definitely NOT cost effective, as Chris likes to point out. But, we are paying for my sanity, right? Isn't that worth something? It would have been cheaper if we didn't have to replace so much dirt, but the overabundance of weeds made it desirable.

Here is everything once we had it loaded in the car. Craig (or Chris, I can't remember which) stole (took out the trash early?) some of the plastic off a pallet to cover the floor of the car to avoid losing all the dirt there.

It was definitely a group project, although Chris wasn't feeling well so he and Jane took an afternoon nap. Lucky them, they missed the hot part of the day.

Nice hair, Janet!

Here are the shots of when we were all done. We planted two kinds of tomatoes, small ones and big ones (sandwich tomatoes, Chris says), carrots, onions, lettuce, and three kinds of peppers (mild and hot), and, obviously, lots of flowers. I wanted some color and we thought it would be nicer to look at from the yard if all the boxes were lined with flowers.




Sadly, the tulips didn't do amazingly well being transferred to the other planter box. They look a lot worse today, but it's about time for tulips to start dying--well, at least the blossoms--anyway so we'll blame it on that.

Hooray! I have a summer project!

Don't feel too bad for me. I do have several things I want to get done this summer that I never have time to do during the school year. Jane is getting big enough to play by herself for longer stretches of time so hopefully I'll actually get something done. I am very much looking forward to school ending. Only eight more days!!!!!

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P.S.

it's a girl

P.P.S. that's a second :)