My garden!

Like a proud parent, I am very excited to show off some pictures of my very first vegetable garden! Here it is in all of its glory:


As you can see, I decided it would be best to start out small. Jason helped me build up a raised bed just the right size for a beginner. Allow me to give you a quick tour of what we will, with any luck, be eating later on this summer.

Peas (grown from seed!!) on vines that are now nearly as tall as I am:

Tomatoes (not grown from seed) and basil:

And here, on the right, something we will unfortunately not be enjoying this year - asparagus. Yes, that lone, brown, dead looking stick (which was in fact green at one point) was all that became of the asparagus roots I planted. By the way gardening experts out there, does anyone know what the green plant (or, perhaps, weed) in the left of the frame is? I planted some roots of strawberry plants, but they never came up. This arrived much (i.e. months) later so I'm not sure if the roots were just late bloomers or if I've been very carefully nurturing a weed for the last few weeks.


And while we're playing Name That Plant, what about this? Does anyone know what it is? Looks like it might have the potential to produce berries, but what do I know? It was here when we got here with no hint as to what it might be.


Since we're outside, how about a tour of the rest of our yard? It's not much, I was able to capture most of it in this one shot (Dad, the lawn seriously needs your special touch!):


It's actually the perfect size for us and very easy to mow! Our lawn mower cracks me up, I should have gotten it out and taken a picture, but I didn't. Basically, it's a glorified weed-eater with electric power and all.

In addition to this small patch of grass, we also have a nice little patio complete with a "garage" (ha!) and Jason's pride and joy, his grill:


And finally, no tour of our yard would be complete with out seeing our "rubbish center" that many of you have heard us talk about; have you ever seen so many different trash cans / recycling bins?


Here's how the system works:

Green bin (otherwise knows as a garbage can to you and I) - Compostable waste (basically all waste food items), cardboard, phone books, and yard waste (including the dead bird I found in my garden a few months back!)

Blue box - All plastic containers except their corresponding plastic lids which go in the black box along with...

Black box - aluminum cans, glass bottles, clean aluminum foil, junk mail, magazines, and paper products

Black bin - basically anything else that doesn't find it's way to one of the other bins or boxes

And, in case that alone wasn't enough to make your head spin, remember: the blue box and the green bin go out on the first and third Thursday of every month; the black box and the black bin go out on the second and forth Thursday of every month.

I can hardly believe that it's nearly second nature now. We really struggled at first!