We're expanding...

...our garden! :) This go-around, we wanted to add a little more space for some new veggies so we did a couple tiers around our original garden. This all took place a couple weeks back, but I'm just getting around to blogging about it because we've been so busy!

We made the little trip down the road to the nursery to purchase our plants. We've gotten to know a couple of the employees there since this is our third season of gardening. They are always very helpful and willing to educate us and answer any questions we might have. :) It was such a pretty sight as we walked out to the back, all these beautiful flowers!

Found this little friend on our celery plant!Gavin claimed "her" and named "her" Christina.
Sadly, Christina didn't survive past the next day.Hard work hauling in the plantsThe spoils ~ just makes me giddy looking at all that!

We had to get the plants in the ground but it had been raining and freezing cold outside. It didn't stop Matt!! The kids had their chance to help, then Matt finished the rest in the dark! I supervised from inside, where it was warm, except for a quick check every once in awhile. ;)

Do you see Matt over here?? ---v---

The finished product!!

On this side, we have 49(!!!!) corn plants, strawberries from seed, cucumbers from seed then cucumbers plants.In the middle, we have zucchini, green bell peppers, celery, yellow crookneck squash and 12 tomato plants in three different varieties (Early girl, Roma and Cherry). I may be learning how to can tomatoes this summer! ;)Then on the end, we put our watermelon and cantaloupe plants so they have plenty of room to vine without intruding on the other plants. Strawberries in the pot just to the side.

So our newbies this year are cornstrawberries and celery

Matt and Gavin also planted some sunflower seeds in between the strawberry and cucumber seeds, which should be interesting to watch grow.

Our blackberry bushes are flourishing after just 3 months! Boy will it be exciting to actually see fruit on these babies next year! And oh, the jam!! Mmmmmm!!!

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The garden pictures were all taken 7 days ago and everything has already grown so much!! The cucumber seeds have poked through, the strawberries are all turning red, the corn is getting taller and we're starting to see some flowers on the tomatoes and bell pepper plants. We still need to throw our green onion seeds in a separate planter (to keep them from being overtaken) sometime soon. Matt and I are far from being pros at this, but we do really enjoy it so, so much! It's very rewarding being able to grow food in and eat things right from your own backyard! I can't wait to pick our first veggie!!