So a few weeks ago I posted this photo on Facebook and asked people to guess what we were building.  The responses were great…bunk beds? Chicken coop? A fort? A playhouse?

But what we (read = my fabulous husband) was actually building were vegetable beds. We decided that we just didn’t have ENOUGH stuff going on, that it might be fun to add ONE MORE THING to our lists.  I actually take full blame for this project as I thought it might be fun and asked hubs ever so nicely (I think he might have rolled his eyes at me…) if he would build them for us.

I had vegetable garden envy after seeing my neighbors and then my parents.  I had just decided I would wait a year to add this “4th child” to our lives, (since we had NEVER GROWN VEGETABLES, EVER,  and I have a black thumb…).

But then my dad tells me, “It’s easy!  We live in the perfect climate for it. If you water it, you’ve done your job. The sun will do the rest!”

This is their garden around Mother’s Day….
They live in a fab empty nester condo,
so this should show you, you don’t need a backyard to grow veggies.

A few hours later we’re building vegetable beds.

I’m at Home Depot with hubs and am on my iPhone checking out P-Dubs vegetable box tutorial.  We didn’t actually follow hers, but it’s a good one if you need some direction.  Hubs already had in mind how he wanted to build ours, and my only requirement was making it child proof.

I know, I know…I should just let kids be kids and teach them about gardening.  Chalk it up to  – I just don’t want to protect one more thing from being “interesting”. And the fact that I have a 2 year old, 1 year old and a 3 month old. I may have eyes in the back of my head, but I would need them all over by entire body to keep up with this crew. So hubs devised special sliding gates which is what makes the photo above look possibly like a bunk bed or chicken coop!

He and the girls got busy with the building….

I mean seriously, this is just one of the many reasons I love him!

I can’t even fold laundry with the girls “helping” and he’s using power tools!

You go girls!!  Girls can run construction crews too!

Hubs making one of the secret weapon gates…

Then it was off to the backyard.

(Please ignore the ugly and embarrassing cinder block wall….)

Piper chilled in the pack & play for about 2 hours while we did this,

love that kid!!

Addie & Hay were MESSSSSSSSSY! But boy did they have fun with the dirt!

We sort of cheated, but people remember I just said we had NEVER done this before! Lowes ended up having the best assortment of starter plants, including lettuce.  Most of the plants came in great little containers that you planted directly into the soil.  The containers then absorbed into the dirt.

Kinda felt like we were being green for a minute!

This is the girls “job”.  We actually already had the trees planted ~ lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, avocado, and a cocktail fruit tree (no – drinks do not grow on trees, I wish, its a mix of fruit – peaches, plums, apricots). Watering the trees is a good safe job they can do in the garden without ripping apart the beds, and they love helping!

This is the second bed with Artichokes, Heirloom Tomatoes, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, & Cucumbers.

See the fab secret weapon gate??  All 4 sides actually slide out.  Man, I love my hubs!

He put this “groovy” groove in each post for the gates.  They do get a little sticky, but we’re going to try the wax trick that I used to use on dresser drawers in my past life. (Rub a wax candle down the tracks that need to run through each other and it helps everything “slide”).

The photo above is 1 of the boxes the day we planted everything.  About a month ago. The photo below is from this past weekend.  Check out the corn stalks on the back right!! And we did actually grow some things from seed. The front has a row of carrots and a row of green onions behind the carrots.  And I promise, I’ve done nothing but water everything (and live in sunny southern California!)  This past weekend was the first time I’ve watered them with fertilizer.

Basil, Parsley, Beefsteak Tomatoes

Green Peppers

Chives (Corn, Green Onions, & Carrots behind)

In the other bed Zucchini…

and Cucumber.

This past weekend we finally got the pumpkins in the ground.  You plant them at different times during the spring, depending on the climate region you live in, for an October harvest.  I’m guessing you might have another week to be able to do this here.  I read somewhere that it’s good to plant pumpkins with companion plants.  Have no idea if this is true or not, but we planted nasturtiums and sunflowers.  And then hubs had the wild hair idea to plant more corn, so that cinder block wall you saw above should have corn all along it this summer, and then pumpkins and nasturtiums (poppies) all fall.

My tip is, try things you wouldn’t normally try. Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know.

I’m selfishly trying to do more things at our house (so I don’t have to venture out as much with the Littles, it’s just A LOT of work right now!) I would rather spend the energy having fun with them all (rather than getting them in and out of the car and chasing them down).  So I’m looking for projects we can do at the house, even if it means more work, as it gives me something to do with them, that also teaches them something, and is a great, fun project for us all!

I’m planning on giving garden updates along the way. Do you grow one? Any tips & tricks??

Happy Thursday All!!