Gardening in December & January

Have you ever planted in December? How about in sand? We're trying lots of new things here in Florida!

 Shoveling technique...

Gardening here in Florida has been a bit daunting because I have no idea what I'm doing. We dug in to the Earth in our backyard and it was all sand. How grass grows, I'm not sure. We literally filled the boys' sand box from clearing an area for the garden. We're starting pretty small and will likely expand as we get a hang of gardening in Florida. I hear that bugs and mildew are the big problems here. Thanks to family (workers) and friends (loaning trucks/tools) our adventures of gardening in Florida are well on there way!

Sawyer happy to be on a mulch run with papa.

Sawyer got in on every single wheel barrow ride. That was his job, and he was good at it.

Getting a good nap in on the job.

Christ had the hard job (really!).

One smart thing we did was start a compost pile back in September...come early January there was already some great stuff to use in the garden! Here Alethea is being creative 'sifting' the compost so we can use the good stuff in the garden.

Work that ground!

This picture makes it look like I worked so hard, in reality it was mostly my sisters who did the work.

Alethea how is this the only picture I have of you working in the garden? Besides the ones in your swimsuit of course, haha. At least you stocked up on vitamin D now that you are back in negative temps! She was out there all the time. Can't stop the horticulture in that girl. 

Abbie & Sawyer playing in the sand that was cleared out of the garden area.

 These were the radish sprouts 8 days after we'd planted seeds. (They sprouted on Day 4).

Left row: rosemary, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, basil, peppers. Right row: red potatoes, dill, and cilantro.

 Radishes, swiss chard, carrots, beets, lettuce, broccoli, kale, peas, & beans.

Herb garden - rosemary, lavender, sage, cherry tomatoes, parsley, bell peppers, aloe, basil, & oregano.

There is NO way I could have accomplished this massive project without the help of Alethea, Abbie, and Chris (and George, Sawyer, and Jack of course :). Thank you so much for all your hard work, smarts, smiles, and for giving the gift that keeps on giving. We are so excited to start eating from the garden! And as per their instruction I'm going to THIN the garden.  It makes me so happy to look out my kitchen window and see my garden!