Planter boxes, filled and planted

Happy May Day! Last Sunday morning, we got a delivery of what was supposed to be 2 yards of dirt for the planter boxes. I now think it was more like 3 yards. On Sunday afternoon (before flying to Texas for my brother-in-law’s funeral), I filled all our planter boxes and planted our new starts! It was a lot of work, but I’m really happy to have edible plants in our garden now.

Before:

Empty planter boxes

2 yards of dirt? More like 3.

Fruit and veggie starts!

Midway point:

The first two wheelbarrow loads

About 3/4 full.

Hardly a dent in the pile ‘o dirt!

The kids helped:

Amelia shoveling.

Using the wheelbarrow, like mom.

Baxter decided to move one shovelful at a time.

One load dumped, 3 more to go!

Finally, they were full of dirt:

Filled and tilled!

Seriously, if you want some dirt hit me up.

Covered against the rain.

So then we planted:

Amelia was wild to plant the strawberries.

Like pretty maids all in a row!

And here’s a close-up of each box:

Salad mix, carrot seeds, one lonely mint plant.

clockwise from back left: oregano, tarragon, basil, cilantro, cilantro, thyme, parsley x6

Arugula (it’s a vegetable) x6

“everbearing” strawberries x6 plus marigolds

I can’t wait to harvest some salad! 🙂 We’ll plant one or two bush bean plants when the weather warms up a bit, sunlight permitting. I’ve never really been able to grow lettuce before, so if that fails I’ll definitely put the beans in that box. If the shady spot I put the arugula in is too sunny after all, or if we discover we don’t need that much arugula after all (they sold the starts in sets of 6 — the tyranny of plenty!), I might pull out half that box and use that for carrots instead of the lettuce box.

This is all an experiment anyway. If you are great at gardening and wish to advise me, please feel free. 😉