Adventures in Gardening

So with the advice and words of wisdom from my dear friend Laura, I have started gardening! That's right folks, I am now dipping my hands in Mother Earth and planting, planting, planting. I've even brought Kylee in on the good times! She seems to be quite intrigued by the watering can. So maybe that will be her job. Once I find a watering can that doesn't weigh as much as she does when it's full.

So we've already put in a pepper plant, which was also given to us by my friend Laura. It has already grown a little bit since we got it from her at the beginning of the month. We also have planted two different kinds of tomatoes. Yellow and Cherry. I LOVE cherry tomatoes. Especially on salads. I've actually never had the yellow tomatoes before. So, it's something different. Tim loves tomatoes of all kind, so he's really excited about this. He informed me yesterday that he going to "buy MORE tomato plants for me to plant"..what a peach! I'm also prepping areas for cucumbers, carrots, and possibly potatoes! Yum! We're going to container plant herbs too!

So in my few days of being a "gardener"..a term I still use loosely... I have learned a few things, believe it or not.

First of all...do not go out in the garden midday! I hate sweating. I hate being fried by the sun. So, I go out early morning or around 8 at night when the sun is down but it's not too dark.

USE gardening gloves. I don't care how annoying they feel or how sweaty your hands get inside of them. Regardless of how short you keep your nails..you will still get dirt under them no matter what.

Include your children. No matter how old they are. Kylee is almost 6 months and LOVED sitting outside in her Bumbo with her sunhat on, watching me. I even let her hold my little shovel and dig a little. She 'dug' it! (haha...*sigh*)

Spiders won't kill you. Well, at least ones in your own backyard in Omaha shouldn't. So there's NO need (I repeat..no need..) to scream and jump up on the table in fear of your life. You look like an idiot and sound like a fool. And I just wouldn't do such a thing..nope, not me.

Which brings me to....SNAKES! I've been told, "they're more afraid of you, then you are of them"...well, maybe they should stay out of my backyard then! I hate snakes. Loath them. Despise them. Hate that they trespass on my property and unlike spiders I will NEVER be able to stay calm around them. So I would like to plant something around my entire backyard that snakes just HATE the smell/taste of. Any ideas?

Other than these things that I've come across so far...gardening has been so much fun! It's quite a stress relief too. Plus, I imagine it's going to be a great time in a few months when we get to harvest the fruits of our my labor!

Next year I would love for my whole backyard to look like this...

Looks like I have a LOT of work ahead of me!