Start of 2012 Garden

Eric has majorly gotten into gardening the last year or so. Last year he got tired of the tall grass by the fence so he dug up a 2 ft or so bed along the whole fence like he did in the back for our fruit way for flowers and herbs. He researched which herbs were the "prettiest", got seeds, and diagrammed it up for how tall they should get. I chose some of my favorite flowers and herbs I actually do something with now. I kept wanting to figure out when they bloom and if they were annuals/perennials though Eric just went with it so I keep telling myself document how it grows and we can always change things around just because its planted doesn't mean its permanent and can never change.Here Rachel and I are bundled up to help plant the seeds that could be planted the fall before on November 5. We planted garlic, lemon balm, mint, larkspur, bearded iris, german chamomile, lilies, lavender, columbine, snap dragons, forget-me-nots, and roman chamomile.Then besides the new beds Eric got interested in growing all our own seeds so he got a seed growing cart from Burpees and mapped out our garden. We wanted to start small and then add something new to the garden each year. Somehow Eric keeps jumping the gun what with the fruit way last year and all these flower/herb beds this year. The reason being that neither of us have garden on our own much (though our families had gardens growing up) so in order to figure out how to take care of the plants not too mention the harvest at the end in small amounts. We started with carrots, bell peppers and tomatoes in 2010 (moved in too late in 2009 and with me expecting Aaron in Aug it didn't seem like a good idea, besides our garden area was filled with roses we had to deal with). Here Eric and the kids are preparing the dirt to plant the first seeds on February 8.

As usual I was mistress of the seeds and Rachel was all over. You can see the cart in the background where Aaron is with its special growing light. We planted 4 kinds of peppers and some parsley.

We wrapped up by Miriam and Eric giving them a good watering. Next planting date St Patricks Day.
All seeds germinated within 2 weeks and here they are almost precisely 3 weeks later. Wish us luck in keeping them alive and being able to get them outside safely!