We planted a garden!

Yay!!

All the hard work we did this spring is finally paying off.  We were able to plant our veg and herb garden.

An overhead view.

Artistic ground level view. 

Do you see the sweet little herb pots?  Super easy, free project which adds a nice little bit of somethin-somethin in the garden.  We cut down some terra cotta tubes (I'm sure they have a name/purpose, I just don't know what it would be, they held wine bottles in overhead display storage previously) John's sister - hi Marrie! - gave us and we went to work.

John used a grinder to cut the tubes into different lengths.

Then...

We did a mock layout in the garage. 

Then...

Boom!  Planted.  We used a potting soil/compost mix and
buried them a little so they wouldn't tip over.

We've got the drip hose snaked through the tomato cages so it's at the ready to be hooked up to the rain barrel (planning, it pays!).  For a weed barrier and moisture retention, I put down newspaper and then grass clippings on top.   I didn't have any grass clippings for the photos above, but on Tuesday Jay needed to borrow the truck to transport his lawn mower and brought us the clippings...

It looks great now, and it will be even better next week when Jay
mows again and we can top it off with enough grass to fill the space. 

It's going to be sad when the grass starts to turn brown and the veg plants start to get unruly.  But then we start getting peppers and tomatoes.  The circle of life.

And, because I love them, here's a less blurry close up of the herb pots, they are adorable :)

There are a ton of other things I'd like to do outside before it gets too hot or too late to plant anything.  I still need to figure out what to do with the area behind/below? the deck, I'm thinking native plants and grasses so I don't have to worry about it.  I angry-moved the rose bushes that were there previously to a space more rose bush and people friendly.  Now the area is just sitting there with a bunch of mulched weeds and grass clippings that I keep dumping on it to keep the weeds down.  I don't want to plant anything that is going to get trampled by our next project...

...THE DECK.  John has been doing planning and budgeting and now we are ready to start!