Toads-in-the-Hole

I guess you could say that I've been craving a vegetable garden for a long time now. Each and every time Spring rolls around, I think, "I want a good tomato, freshly picked from my own garden." We've tried container plants, but haven't had a lot of good luck with our harvests in the past.

Truthfully, we've been in a re-sale state-of-mind since we bought our home and have been reluctant to till up the green space or change the layout of the land too much. Our backyard, as charming as it is with the creek and trees and birds and rabbits and muskrats, is also a bit on the shady side.

Still, today we decided to cast-off our troubles, till up a little patch of earth and start a new family project: Our Homemade Pizza Garden.

We're calling it a Pizza Garden because we organized our gardening attempt around the idea of making a homemade pizza using our own garden-fresh veggies. It gives the idea focus, which helps with novice vegetable gardening. Adelaide made a map this morning of our intended layout and measured out a plot in an empty space in our little backyard flower garden. We invested $80 in tools (i.e., a real child-sized hoe), soil helpers (i.e., peat moss and a compost-manure mixture), poultry mesh, garden stakes, and starter plants. We hoed and tilled up the earth; Henry collected as many worms as he could find to add to our garden. We secured the space (from bunnies and Ophelia) with our poultry mesh, and then we began to plant.

We've got oregano, two different types of basil, eggplant, three different varieties of tomatoes, three varieties of peppers, and carrots.

Joel and I keep peeking out the window at our garden this afternoon, delighted to see it occupying a once lonely space and waiting to see who'll be the first to see the tops of the carrots spring up. I know, I know, we've got a couple weeks at least before we see some changes, but we're excited! This is fun!