How Does Her Garden Grow

When I moved into my house last summer there was a neglected garden in the back. It was somewhat cleared and had a rosemary, thyme, and a mint plant growing in it. Well I neglected it more over the summer due to heat and mosquitos. It turned into a weed's paradise!

This February I took it upon my self to reclaim the garden! I enlisted the help from my Husband and our son JB.We used every gardening tool my garage had to offer rakes, hoes, pitchforks, and shovels. We started by turning the soil to break up all the roots. The rosemary was the only plant that survived our neglect from the previous year so we worked around it. You can see there is still a lot of plant matter left behind at this point (and a very white fluffy dog, she enjoyed the free range digging we allowed her).

Here is another shot of our progress this time with JB doing his part to help.

Next we took rakes and hoes to the garden. This removed the plant matter and its roots so hopefully the weeds don't come back. That large plant in the center is the rosemary I mentioned earlier, you can see why we didn't want to remove it.

There were some paver stones left in the garden from its previous owners. I used them to make a path for the garden for easy care and harvesting.

Finally I was ready to plant! I bought some starter plants; I chose curly kale, dino kale, romonesco, and green cauliflower. I chose these because it is February and they are hearty winter vegetables that can withstand short periods of freezing weather. In fact this was put to the test the very next weekend. Im happy to report they are all alive and well.

There were some seeds left in the garage from the previous owners. From them I chose to try my luck with broccoli, onion, two types of lettuce (red leaf and green leaf, I believe) and green beans. We will see if anything sprouts. In this photo their bed is on the left side of my path way.

Here are my efforts from a very labor intensive weekend! When it gets warmer I plan on putting in a herb garden around the rosemary and some more summer vegetables. I will post more about my garden as it develops!
-LMC