Garden take one; take two!

There is no shortage of time consuming (obviously, look at how absent I have been from my blog) projects around our house. Some are more pressing than others. In my mind, a garden was not crucial, but thanks to Brian's efforts, my feelings have changed. It is really great to have a garden. Not to mention he planted seed in the dead parts of the grass that have sprouted. It's neat to watch as the little buds pop up in the earth. The whole back part of our nothing but dirt half of the yard has been transformed right before my very eyes. Also, it's a fun family project and Xiana can't get enough of it. The day we were planting seeds she was pretty much throwing onion seeds all over the place so that we won't be surprised when we find onions sprouting up everywhere. Brian had this genius idea (he is really clever at thinking of things like this when I just lose my patience) to give her her own packet of seeds and garden. She already has her own rakes and hoe and shovels. So, he filled an empty packet with little tiny rocks and put her to work. She was so proud of her own little garden and needed a refill of seeds about five times. Later, Brian brought us outside to show us our own little pets we had in the back trellis.... four of them!
Brian with the fruits of his labor: tomatoes, peppers, onions, jalapenos, turnips, and radishes.
Gardening makes you thirsty!
She was so serious about her work and confidently assured us that her seeds were all planted.
See those empty patches of grass... they are not bare any longer!
I just had to throw in a pic of the trampoline that will surely become famous in this journal eventually... if not already.
Poop! aka fertilizer. One night when I went to school, Xiana was having a melt down for some reason. Brian has just put 6 bags of manure on the ground out back letting it dry before tilling it into the ground. Xiana was hysterical so Brian said, "guess what's in our backyard?" "what?" "Poop!" "I wanna see the poop." Tantrum resolved. She is fascinated by poop probably stemming from Brian pointing out the excrement's of various animals on our hikes. Still, another creative idea. Just side track her with poop. Brilliant.
So, with everything planted we went out of town and in our absence.... it snowed. A lot. And it froze...really froze. And when we came home, everything was dead... including our baby birds. It was a sad day so Xiana and I went all over town trying to find 4 packs of plants instead of paying 4 bucks a pop for the more mature plants. In our travels we discovered that most places had also lost all their plants to the freeze. Then we came across a nursery whose dedicated owners had come in the middle of the night to rescue their vegetables and brought them in to an already filled inside to save them. So I bought a bunch more plants and this time we waited a week to put them in the ground. It is now June so I hope there will not be anymore freezes. Brian meanwhile planted squash, 3 different types of cucumbers and something else I can't remember. Then we replanted tomatoes and peppers.... take two. Then, the rabbits started eating them... those rascally little things. So Brian took matters into his own hands. And I bought some chicken wire, but 50 feet didn't go around the corner of the garden and it was expensive so we decided to finish the back fence with hopes that it would ward off some of the little bunnies and squirrels that hang out in our yard. We started it, but we are heading out of town again tomorrow leaving our garden free for Peter and his family and friends. I really hope that we don't experience de ja vu upon our return. If we do, we might have to try our hands at gardening again next year.
But I hope our plants live because they are really something.
This week Brian is planting corn and melons... oh yeah, and he also planted rhubarb and when we went to Home Depot to get it there was a mommy and daddy owl living on the rafters.... and they had babies! The babies looked completely fake like stuffed animals and I thought Brian was pulling my chain as usual, but he wasn't. They were oh so real, oh so beautiful, and OH SO SCARY! Animal control was on their way to relocate the fragile ferocious birds. It was pretty darn cool.

To be continued....isn't she a sweet little gardener? She should get to experience success and so should her inexperienced non green thumb mother. Hopefully her daddy will carry us amateurs through to vegetable heaven.