My Little Gardeners

For the fall we planted peas and spinach in the boys' little garden plot. Alex took quite a bit of interest in it, and really enjoys watering the plants. I think he might be ready for some more hands-on work come Spring.

Getting the bucket to go water the plants.

We're working on which direction is best to dump the bucket. :)

Putting on Mommy's gloves to get to work.
He even got the kneeler on his own.

Locke isn't much of a green thumb just yet,
but he likes the sunshine either way.

Our Garden!

I'm so excited to finally have a yard to garden in! I have big plans for our yard. This year we won't be able to have quite as big of a garden as I would like, but we've got a few little plants in the ground and plans to get ready for next spring!

Here is where I plan to build our raised beds.
I'm leaning towards using cinder blocks for the bed. 

Here is our persimmons tree. It had fruit on it pretty
well into the winter. I'm hoping it'll liven up again soon.

Eventually I will clear this out and use this bed as well.
I'd like to try some hardy herbs in this spot.

This bed was cleared out and is home to our
little garden for this year. Next year I'd like to make this the
boys' plot and let them pick what they'd like to grow.

Here's Alex with our little garden!
We've got two tomato plants and four pots of leaf lettuce.
We got the plants from a local nursery: Deep Roots Nursery
which uses heirloom seeds and natural growing methods.

What's going into your garden this year?

Compost!

As part of our gardening plans and attempts at a more sustainable lifestyle, we've started a compost! Now, at first, I really liked the idea of a simple, open air compost, but then Alex hit the toddler stage and I realized I wouldn't be able to let him in the backyard without worrying he'd come running up with some rotting banana peels.

So I started looking at composters and oh my goodness were they expensive! I can't believe people pay over $100 for a box to put trash in. It just blows my frugal little mind! Obviously, the commercial composters weren't for us. Luckily I come across several others who seemed to have the same problem as we did and had found a solution!

After reading multiple articles and blogs, I had a plan, and my husband had a job to do! :) We (and by "we" I mean "he") made a compost bin out of an old storage tub. Bonus: the tub has locking handles!

It really is simple, though maybe a bit time consuming.
Take a dark colored plastic storage bin and drill holes in all
sides, bottom included. This allows for proper airflow and drainage.

I can't wait until we have usable compost! Does your family compost? What kind of container do you use, or do you?