Preparing for Our Family Garden

I have decided to plant flowers again this year and hopefully some vegetables. I had this plan last year also but I was very pregnant at the time with Ciara and couldn't bend over at all by the time I got around to planting. My mom was my savior last year. She came over and took me plant shopping and suggested some easier maintenance plants and she also spent the day planting what we purchased. She got Isaac involved in the planting and he still talks about how much fun he had. We didn't get around to veggies last year but I would really love to make it happen this year. We love grilling out vegetables and it would be so much more affordable to grow them ourselves! Here are my plans for our garden. I am putting it out there so I will be held accountable and increase my chances of following through.

Last year we did flowers in the mulch right up against the house and I plan on doing the same thing this year. My mom suggested Impatiens because they live through almost anything and that's what I want again this year. Isaac and William love watering the flowers and sometimes they get a little carried away so these flowers will be for them.

My mom bought me this trellis last year and we planted 2 perennials here and I am hoping they come back and work their way back up like vines.

The family who lived here before us planted perennials here and they are already starting to come up again this year. Also, they planted Lilies that will pop up later in the year. Less work for me - yeah!

My plan is to clean out the garage this weekend so that I can get to my planting supplies including some planter boxes I have for the front porch.

The planter boxes will go here and will include flowers that I haven't yet decided on. Any suggestions?

I have been checking out some other blogs about gardening with your little ones and I found this site that has so many great ideas and has put together a preschool pack (http://homeschoolcreations.com/gardenpreschoolpack.html). Starting next week we are going to be doing many of the activities out of the pack along with some ideas I had. William is holding 2 of our projects. Lucy (age 1), William (age 2), and Isaac (age 6) are going to plant tomato plants and they are going to paint some butterfly pots and plant grass seed for our own version of a Chia pet. I can't wait. My plan for the vegetables hasn't quite come together yet. I am waiting to make sure we don't have any more expected freezing temperatures coming up. I would like to do a couple of raised plant beds and plant zucchini, squash, and green beans. I don't want to go overboard the first year. I'll post pictures to show you how we are coming along next week. Wish us luck!