The Ziemann Farm????

The vegetable garden behind the playhouse



One of the blueberry bushes

Who doesn't want the freshest produce available??? With this in mind and knowing that it would be such a cool experience for the kids I decided to try my hand at a vegetable garden. It started out small...and by small I mean 2 or 3 vegetables for the kids to take care of. I thought tomatoes would be pretty easy (it seems that most people have good luck with them), a green pepper plant and maybe some cucumbers. Easy enough right? Next decision was were to put it and if it was going straight into the ground or a raised bed. I read that you can start growing things sooner in a raised bed because the soil stays warmer and you can grow more because you don't have to make the rows so wide to allow for walking. You are able to just reach across. So my handy husband built me two awesome boxes and we filled them with a mix of black dirt and compost. Once the kids and I decided on the "few" things that were going in,we headed for the nursery (we did start some seeds inside but did not have a whole lot of luck).
I should have known that once faced with all the choices of vegetables I would not be able to walk out of there with just 3 or 4. The same thing always happens when I go to buy flowers every spring :) We planted a few things that weekend and by the next week we realized the bunnies were still able to get in our yard! They munched everything down to the dirt!! I had to start from scratch...but this time with a fence! It has turned into quite the "small garden". We have tomatoes, green, red, and yellow peppers, banana peppers, jalepenios (Alex's request), beans, carrots, cucumbers, asparagus, corn, raspberries, strawberries (growing in strawberry pots)and blueberries.

Everything but the asparagus is in the ground and growing and it is sooooo exciting! The kids check on it everyday and I've been able to use this experience as a great lesson for the kids (and me)in living a greener life. I can't wait to go produce shopping in my backyard!!