How does our garden grow?

So, I finally took the plunge and started a garden :).  Since my thumb is pretty much a deep shade of black, I was a bit ummmm... terrified to actually spring into the gardening mode.  Last year, while my dad was here, he made some boxes for 'square foot' gardening - after an inspiring visit to Patti's gardening heaven :). (Thanks for all of the information and inspiration, Patti!)

    As I stared at the boxes all winter long, I made a pact with myself that if spring actually melted the arctic tundra that was my backyard, I would indeed plant the gardens.  I do have to say, I seriously doubted that spring would ever make it's way to the sub zero terrain, so I kinda thought I was safe... but alas, it did come and with it green was once again established in the land of gray :).

     So, out we went (we being me and my four little 'helpers') to gather all of the supplies.  (Have you ever tried to gather gardening components with 8 little pairs of hands reaching out to touch EVERY plant variety in the store?  It was quite a fun trip!)  With only a few mishaps... (picture this:  we drive up to a mammoth pile of compost at the city recycling plant to shovel compost into a container that we had in the van.  The kids think that me bending over, grunting, hauling shovel full after shovel full of compost into the container looks rather inviting, so they each beg to take a turn.  I give in, giving myself a pat on the back for being an 'involving, hands-on' mother.  The first shovel is lifted toward the container, with about 1/16 of the shovel load actually making it into the container.  The rest was 'joyfully' scattered around the interior of the van.  The second child tried, with even less of the shovel load making it into the container and the rest 'fertilizing' the van.  Okay, hands on mothering moment over!)

      Fast forward (complete with the funny fast forward music as the frames move at super speed!) the three more trips to the recycling plant, 2 more trips to stores, a lot of grunting, hauling, sod busting, shoveling, mixing, pounding, yada yada yada, and WHALLA, we officially have entered the 'gardening guru' club!

     I do have to say, after all is said and done - it is pretty fun to look out back and see things actually coming to life!  I'm still a bit skeptical that we will actually get real fruits and vegetables from the garden, but it does look a wee bit promising :).