2008 my son turned 2 and my daughter was born...

So there were more pics of the kids than the yard!  But the yard really began to fill in and I did manage to find a couple from that summer!

I had lots of help that summer!  My littlest helper in the carrier is only about a week old! 

I often found this three foot tall, two legged critter roaming my garden and grazing on the veggies!

 He was also found roaming the tree and shrub bed, smelling the flowers!

 And running wildly about the grass!

A few pics and progress from 2007

Early in the summer of 2007, we put in some more big structures - the garden shed and the deck.  Hubs likes to do it up right too, so he designed this deck with a curved corner!  See the black pipe in the background?  That was his "steamer" he build to steam his wood so he could bend it to make the curved railing!  And in the far background is my beautiful cottage style garden shed.

 My very first "sour" cherries.  These are also called pie cherries as they are the type you make pie filling and cherry juice with. Mmmmm Tasty!

 My second year of vegetable gardening!

 From left to right - strawberries, raspberries, and saskatoons!  Tomatoes in the background and in the foreground is the corner of my veggies garden where the cucumbers are!

 My amazing tomato box!  My greatest success!

 Prepping for the sod at the end of August.

 

 Rolling sod into the night!

Spring 2006... the plant obbsession takes hold!

I found these pictures from the spring of 2006.  I do recall starting my plants very early that year... and transplanting to bigger pots about 3 times!  By the time it was warm enough to move the plants outside, my dear hubby thought he was going to have to move out because we didn't have enough room!  These pictures are dated April 12 - still about 45 days from transplanting to the garden!

Two greenhouses packed full of seedlings!  There are tomatoes, peppers, herbs and lots of other veggies under the plastic but I can't remember which ones. I also see some zinnias, marigolds, asters, pansies, and some other flowers in there as well.  As well as 3 peonies coming up from tubers in the black pots.

 

 The bulbs in our bedroom. I believe these were Dahlias and Lilies and possibly Begonias in the black pots..

In the beginning....

There was dirt! A lot of dirt and nothing else except a few weeds. The first year (2004) was spent getting the fence up and making a plan.  A plan that was flawed and that changed several times and now seven years later is still changing and is still flawed.  Isn't that the addiction that is our gardens!

Our second spring (2005) in our home, we got to work on our yard putting in some structures that would provide homes for our trees and produce.

Flaw #1: Our garden location.  We put this on the East side of our yard which means the sun shades the few feet by the fence from the ever so valuable morning sun. This garden plot is 24 feet long by 16 feet deep.
Down the road (in 2010) we try Straw Bale Gardening against the fence to help overcome the shade problem. I will link to that post when it is up to let you know how it worked!

Major success #1:  Our tomato planter!  We placed this against the back wall of our garage which faces directly South. This planter receives full sun, amplified by the reflection of the garage wall, from sunrise to sunset. Perfect! This planter is about 14 feet long and 3 feet deep and houses about 18 - 20 tomato plants.

I couldn't even wait until my dear hubby was finished it to get my tomatoes in.

The very first trees put in our yard - 6 Swedish Aspens, 1 Shubert Chokecherry, 1 Autumn Magic Chokecherry, 2 Highbush Cranberry, 4 Blueberries (now gone), 1 President Lincoln Lilac (now gone)

I can not find any pictures of our yard that fall, but I do remember planting more trees that year and we did get that garden turned, tilled, and planted in May.  We had a nice harvest that year and I canned up some pickles and veggies.

Welcome to my gardnening journal...

I started this blog as a journal to document my progress with my garden from year to year. It is mostly a way for me to remember varieties planted, methods used, success rate and other things that I forget by the time I plant the next year! Well, apparently I was so busy gardening this past year I only had time to create a blog and name it, but not enter any posts!

This year I tried a new gardening technique called Straw bale Gardening! I will write a bit about it over the winter as it was a great success that I can't wait to try more of next year!

So through out the winter I will try to dig up pictures of my garden and yard from its bare bones stage seven years ago and document the progress to where it is today. Then I will be all ready to start my Gardening Journal in the spring!