Garden Challenge - April Update

This is our first update for the Homeschool Village's Garden Challenge.  Our introductory post can be found HERE.

Unfortunately we don't have much of an update.  Spring has finally sprung in the Garden State but we cannot count on frost-free  nights until mid-May.  The one thing I can update on is our newest discovery.  While Ms. Q and I were perusing the gardening section at the public library we came across this book:



I am relatively new to gardening so please excuse my ignorance about this but I am totally in love with this book!  Yes we came a little late to the square foot gardening party (the first book was written in 1979) but we are making up for it.  If you haven't read this book I highly recommend you check it out.  Instead of long rows in our garden with relatively few kinds of vegetables, we are going to plant just a few seeds at a time in raised boxes and plant a greater selection of produce.  This has delayed our planting somewhat but I really think it will be worth it.

Here is what we have done in the garden so far:

Little M, Ms. Q and I measured out the garden area to build our square foot boxes.

Dear Hubby built us these great boxes.

Ms. Q and I helped him fill them in.

Some of our tax return money will go to filling the walkways with mulch.

This week Ms. Q will be completing the boxes with a grid so that we can begin to plant a few cool weather plants.  Our plan is to put in peas, spinach, lettuce, onions, carrots, and radishes within the next two weeks.  The rest of our picks for produce will have to wait until after that May 15th Last Spring Frost date.

We also started a compost bin for the garden.  

You can read how we did it and how to make your own HERE.

Little M has been busy with his Garden Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations.  He is really excited for Tot School in the morning and loves to tell his dad all about what he learned. 

He also found a "new friend" in the garden that we had to learn more about.

A "new [worm] friend"

We can't wait to start planting and of course harvesting our garden.   Having them grow their own is really the easiest way to get kids to eat their veggies!