Summer Adventures Recap Part II: Gardening

We had one weekend this summer that we decided we ought to maybe actually stay home and get a few things done around the house. For our Friday night date, we planted a garden! 

I forgot to soften the dirt so Stan had to use his manly muscles so we could plant in the hard ground.

Stan watering our tomato and chile plants right after we finished planting them.

Stan then used the hose to water me while my back was turned.

It was all dark after we finished but here is our proof that we were together.

 For those who know me, I haven't had the greatest luck with plants in my life.

For example: There was the plant I had in college that my friend gave to me to nurse back to health (why she chose me, I don't know). I left it on the front step to get some sunlight and a passerby must have thought it was being discarded because they took it. It was returned to me after I put up missing signs for it.

Another example: A month or two after we got married, Stan bought me a Gerber daisy. He knew how much I loved sunflowers and this was close to them and figured if he bought a plant it would last longer than a regular flower...it did last a couple days longer. :) I named it Frankie and tried really hard to take good care of it. Our apartment didn't get any natural sunlight, and it was February-ish time = cold outside. Frankie was slowly dying. In desperation, I even took him on a drive or two in my car hoping the sunlight and heat of my car would help. They didn't.

Third example: A couple weeks after Frankie died, a gal in our ward gave us a cilantro plant. It didn't last long.

So a garden is a big deal! We planted 12 onions, 12 strawberries, a hot green chile, a medium green chile, cherry tomatoes, and regular tomatoes.

All done!

The day after planting

How it all looks now! We lost one of the strawberries that was on the front left and that bush has grown to the point of eating all our onions :( but the rest of it is fun! If you look close, you can see the strawberry on the front right plant and the chiles growing big on the middle plant.

For my previous experience, I feel like our garden is doing great! Sadly, the bush that the garden is planted next to has overtaken our onions. I don't think they'll make it :( But we've already harvested two cherry tomatoes and there are many more growing. We've harvested two strawberries and there are more coming. Our regular tomatoes are growing. We have picked one hot green chile, have three more growing, and have one medium chile growing! Yay for fresh produce!