Family Gardening Day

 

About a month ago I was at my parents’ house and my dad told me to mark a date down in my calendar because we were doing a family gardening day.  I gave him a bit of a side-eye because I didn’t believe him, but my step-mom confirmed it and I was shocked.  Shocked that my dad was suddenly into gardening and shocked that they were finally doing something with their HUGE backyard.

 

My parents bought the lot that their home is on about 13 years ago and finished the house the next year.  They built the house themselves and spoiled me for a bit when I came home from my first two years of undergrad in East Texas.  It’s a one-story house with a huge open floor plan and even bigger bedrooms.  The master suite takes up half of the home and the other 3 bedrooms are on the other side of the house.  My middle sister and I had Jack and Jill rooms adjoined by a restroom, but we had our own closets.  And don’t get me started on those bedrooms.  If I’m not mistaken they’re 15×15 so I had plenty of room for a California king bed and other pieces of oversized furniture.  I had a chair, entertainment center and a chest of drawers in there as well, and still had plenty of room to do cartwheels if I so dared.

 

I didn’t.

 

Anywho!  We asked my parents what they were going to do with the backyard through the entire building process and never got a firm answer.  My siblings and I pushed for a pool and were hit with a hard “no”, and while I was upset at first I get why they didn’t do it.  They had older kids who were moving out soon and my dad doesn’t really swim like that so it really made no sense for them to get a pool.

 

 

 

Fast-forward 12 years later and we’re putting in a garden.  So, that day I told y’all about that happened a month ago?  The one where I said that my dad told me to put a family garden day down on my calendar?  That was the day he started planting a few seeds getting them ready for the big garden, and this past Saturday was the day we started the big garden.  And I do mean big.

 

I don’t know how much mulch he bought, but it was enough that he and my sisters were out there shoveling for a few hours filling up four big composting bags and I think 6 smaller ones.  Oh, and there was plenty of mulch for my stepmom’s garden up front.  That’s coming next.

 

 

 

My dad sprayed that nasty-smelling fish fertilizer and some other blue fertilizer before we got to planting.  I’m already looking forward to the first harvest!  There’s corn, melons, lettuce, greens, tomatoes, berries, jalapeños, bell peppers and so much more!  We put in work, and if all goes well I won’t have to buy my veggies from a grocery store anymore.  I’ll just grab an Instacart bag and go to my parents’ house!

 

What was really cute was seeing all of my nuggets out there helping.  They were pushing the wheelbarrow, digging holes and shoveling with the rest of us!  I know that they’re just as excited to see the first harvest as I am because they’ll see the product of their hard work.  My daddy said that it would take about 90 days before we’ll be able to start picking stuff, so I’ll share those pictures then.  Wish us luck!!