Our Little City Garden

I love dirt.  I'm not referring to the dust dirt that piles up on the furniture or the dirt that's on our kids' feet at the end of the day or the "dirt" also known as gossip.  I don't care for that type of dirt.  I love working the dirt/soil/earth, tending a garden, and growing plants and vegetables. 

I love examining a tiny seed knowing that in that tiny seed there are amazing things to be grown with just a little dirt, water and light.  I love watching a tiny sprout emerge from the ground.  I love seeing the "real" leaves come on.  Plant life just amazes me.

A couple months ago we started some seeds in our very small backyard.  We started three types of tomatoes, cucumbers and a couple flower varieties.

We started "Mortgage Lifters."  They're supposed to yield two pound tomatoes!  I was hoping they'd "lift" our mortgage too!

We also started "Abe Lincolns" in honor of our Civil War study

Little tomato starts- These are a variety called "German Johnson"

Cucumber starts and little tomatoes

As I was tending my new starts, I was thinking back on my other garden.  We used to have acres of land to grow, but our current home offers a limited patio space.  We're going to try container gardening, and hopefully we'll make the best of it!

Here's a glimpse of my former space:

A portion of our former garden space

The garden going strong

This makes me smile

Fresh raspberries all summer long

I think half our neighborhood here can fit on the property we moved from.  It's been an adjustment, but the daily sunshine helps and the work load is MUCH less.

Back to present day.  Some of our "Abe Lincolns" were big enough to transplant. We bought some metal containers and our oldest drilled drainage holes in them.

Now our containers were ready for the tomato plants.  When transplanting tomatoes, you can bury them a bit deeper than the base, thus burying some of the stem.  I was told they're like clematis in this respect.  Don't worry if your transplants look a little pitiful the first few days after you transplant them.  They're just in shock.  They'll snap out of it in no time.

Nice roots on our tomato starts

Transplant complete

  

The City Garden

Round one of our garden is complete.  I'll need to figure out another plan for our "Mortgage Lifters" and "German Johnson's."  This is such a fun hobby and very rewarding!