How's Your Garden Grow?

When I was growing up in Massachusetts, we had a huge garden in our backyard.  We grew tons of vegetables every year.  This is one of the reasons my brother and I like vegetables.  They taste sooo much better fresh off the plant.

Last year I decided I wanted to grow some vegetables so our boys could see how plants grow and be able to pick the vegetables themselves.  I sort of was hoping it would spur them into eating more vegetables too!  I initially bought two kits at Lowes that came with everything you need to grow a garden.  Colby picked a garden salad garden and Blake picked a salsa garden.  These were really cool.  They had the child plant the garden from seed and there was a computer link to track the progress and tell you what steps to do next.  Once we outgrew the initial containers that we planted the gardens in (and weeded out the vegetables that weren't growing well) Richard and I decided to build a raised garden.

We decided on a raised garden for a few reasons.  One the soil, um dirt, um sand, um clay  here is not conducive to growing good vegetables.  Two we have conservation land behind us and in it lives lots of wild life, so we wanted to be able to prevent them from getting our plants (they ate a pineapple we were growing before).  Three we wanted it contained and raised for easier access for those working with the plants.
Richard and I collaborated on the design, size and got to work.