K is for KinderGARDEN

It's KinderGARDEN time again over at The Inadvertent Farmer!  Woohoo!  We had a blast last year spending our summer out in the garden as a family, and we are so excited about diving in again this year!

Kim's assignment this week is to write a little about ourselves and our plans for the garden, so here is a little bit about us and our garden...

My husband and I have enjoyed gardening since we got married 10(!) years ago.  While we have been gardening for a decade, we are definitely not experts - but we sure have fun learning through our successes and failures.  Ever since he was a toddler, we have tried to include our now-7-year-old son in the mix.  He's really starting to get the hang of it!

 
Last year Kiddo wanted an entire flower bed all to himself.  He planned what flowers he wanted and did most of the planting himself.  He was so proud of his little piece of the yard.

This year, he has already been busy picking out seed packets and starting seeds for his flower garden.
 

 

He's got lots of little babies, and hopefully we'll be able to get them in the ground soon. 

Based on the number of seedlings he's got, he will be asking Daddy to drag out the tiller and expand his flower bed - he is going to quickly run out of room!

Out in the vegetable garden, we've been busy adding some new raised beds.  So far, all they have in them is a goofy Kiddo. 

I called about getting some dirt delivered, but we have had so much rain this spring, dry dirt is in short supply.  Hopefully we will be able to fill them up soon and start planting!

We expanded our garden so that we would have room for the alphabet - we are hoping to grow an alphabet garden this year, with at least one plant for each letter.  We will have to do a little cheating - we are growing squash for "Q" and we are planning on substituting some flowers for a few letters that we couldn't find edible options for - but we are really excited!  We are trying a lot of new things that we've never grown before, so it should be an adventure.  There is some trepidation about all of the vine plants we are planning (cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin, gourds) after our debacle with cucumber beetles last year...

...but the gardener is the eternal optimist, right?

Kiddo has also asked for a garden house this year.  Last year's tunnel turned out so well, we knew we definitely wanted to do something similar again and finally decided on a house.  It will be a whole lot sturdier than our tunnel, thanks to Hubby's hard work and engineering mind.  We are excited to see his "green house" take shape over the next few weeks and months.  Kiddo is beside himself with anticipation.

Today we are off to my brother-in-laws' greenhouses, where we hope to pick up a few more plants (tomatoes and peppers and parsley, oh my!).  Then this afternoon Kiddo and I are planning on planting our onions and checking the few early things we've planted.

We are really looking forward to following along with the other Kindergardeners this year.  Hop on over to the Inadvertent Farmer to see who else is participating (and then join in yourself - I promise it will be fun)!