Our Family Garden

at least it did 2 weekends ago!  

Weekend 1 -I decided that I was sick of eating lower class, high cost veggies and begged Hubby to let me have a veggie patch. He consented (YAY) so I marked out a spot using the kids cricket stumps and some blue wool (so professional, but it worked so who cares?) Unfortunately not thinking to get any pics at this stage! Hubby watched for a while while I hoed in a very amateurish way, then thankfully took over and cleared the space from grass in about 10 minutes! I then watched longingly while it rained on my cleared patch for a week!

 Weekend 2 -I grubbed in with 3 of the kids while kid 4 watched from his baby chair. We weeded and aerated the soil, then put down a thin layer of newspaper. Hubby came up with a brilliant idea of using some old stair boards as the sides of our garden and we went shopping for plants and accessories (naturally). We went down to our local BRILLIANT nursery, Youngberry’s, and got lots of veggie seedlings. We then went to Bunnings for stakes,  headaches and other paraphernalia. I’m so proud of myself too, because when we got home I took the boards and stakes and built the surrounds for our garden. On first looks it looks great – looking closer it looks rather bodge-ily put together. but it works!

We then decided we needed some soil for the garden, to build it up above the lawn and to make sure our veggies were relatively weed free. We went down and got a cubic metre of soil. Doesn’t sound like a lot does it? It weighed 3/4 of a tonne! Halfway home the trailer made a huge BAM then started squealing like a stuck pig. We pulled over and realised (after a little help from my handy brother) that we’d broken a spring in the axle of the trailer. We ended up having to get a truck with a tilt tray to haul the thing home! $66 later we had it on the front lawn.

Then we started wheel barrowing it up to the veggie patch and on my second load BAM off goes the cap on the axle! I couldn’t believe it! I’m sorry to say I got the shits and that’s where it ended!

Weekend 3 -Dear Hubby fixed the wheel barrow and we were off again. We finally got the thing filled and planted out. We’ve got sweet corn, zucchini, tomatoes, spring onions, garlic chives, snow peas, lettuce, rocket and watercress (although the latter two are in pots).

It has really paid off so far. The kids have been helping planting and the boys even ate some garlic chives and spring onions today which is incredible – they never eat anything green or remotely good for them. Hubby and I are so proud of ourselves, and we’re even planning a further garden bed for pumpkin and other stuff. It cost us a packet when you add it all up including tilt tray truck, axle(s), soil etc but once the initial outlay has paid for itself I know we’ll be saving both taste and money!