Ok, Ok, it has been another year since we worked on this blog.  Melanie had a baby and I am a lousy blogger.  However, my adventures with gardening and hers are going to be documented this year. 

Melanie has been trying to work with her soil and large, large boulder infested garden.  She has so much to plant and it just takes time if you are doing it yourself and can't afford (who can) a landscaper to come in and complete the job.  I am working with a yard that was in before I came to this place and is mostly lawn.  Getting my husband to give up grass is like asking him to give up a child or something.  It is very hard for him and so it takes forever to expand gardens and get flower beds.  But is is happening.

I have been gardening with the garden boxes from Earthboxes.  I love them.  They are great.  But I also have areas in my garden, small areas that I can plant like a regular garden.  We purchased the Earthboxes when we were in Oregon. The garden area I had there was so small and the dirt so compact that it would have taken a massive amount of time to work in compost and make the soil worth planting in.  We tried four Earthboxes and loved the results. There were no weeds and less watering.  So the next year we purchased two more.  I have been planting in them for 10 years now and really love the results.  However, occasionally I miss digging weeds and working the soil more.  There are somethings that I do no grow in them like - beets, carrots, turnips - mostly root crops.  I know I can but I haven't tried them in the boxes yet.  I do grow them in my little dirt patch along side the boxes. 

So - we start another year of gardening.  I have already set-out, finally, it is Idaho weather - eastern Idaho weather so putting tomatoes out before the end of May is futile, so tomatoes are out, peppers, cucumbers, squash of all kinds and I am trying a pumpkin and watermelon.  My growing season is a little shorter than Melanie's but we will see.  Pictures are coming.  Plus also out is lettuce, kale, chard and broccoli.  I have planted herbs of all kinds and have harvested some of the basil since the plant I bought was huge. 

I am hoping for a really great gardening year.