Ol' McBrewer Had a Farm

As much as I love the idea of gardening, growing my own vegetables, surrounding myself with beautiful flowers, etc., I do not exactly have a green thumb.  I usually draft a great garden plan, buy lots of seeds and starters, force Ethan to spend a day preparing the garden and planting only to have all of my plants die a few weeks later.  Sometimes they die because cats or raccoons trample the, but most of the time they die because I forget to water them.  Working with children, I have learned the power of incentives and rewards.  So, I am trying it on myself.  If I can keep my new garden alive for 2 months, I will expand and add berries (I really want berries), when I get to 6 months, I am going to buy this really awesome urban composting kit and at the 1 year marker, I am getting a rain barrel.  May I present, the new vegetable garden....drum-roll please...

Since the area I wanted to use has very bad soil- or rather clay- and even worse drainage, I decided to try a raised bed this time.  I had some old wood lying around from a worthless bookshelf I purchased and decided to repurpose it for my raised bed.  I got some metal brackets, screws, washers, hex nuts, potting soil, and plastic liner at Home Depot and voila...a new home for my veggies. So far, I have baby lettuce and a cucumber in the planter. I purchased some seeds but didn't want to risk them being smashed by animals and am starting them indoors in some recycled aluminum cans.

Hopefully, I will soon be able to add romaine lettuce, eggplant, dill and basil to my box of tasty goodness.


**Credit for the title of this entry goes to my childhood friend Leslie Austin who created that song (and sang it at school) upon learning my family had sheep, goats, chickens, etc.  I still insist that I did not grow up on a farm.**