DIY: Our Fruit and Vegetable Garden!

I am so excited to report that my fruit and vegetable garden is in! Some of you may know that are new home came with a garden, but it was very overgrown. Last summer, it was so overgrown and disgusting that I couldn't even bear to look at it. It was embarrassing to me for others to see it. I was very pregnant last summer and very busy with other house things, that we never got around to planting a garden. But, finally, this year, with the help of my wonderful neighbors (who have quite the green thumbs) and our lawn guy who tilled the soil for me after I removed 3 loads of weeds, we have our plants in. My boys were great helpers last week too. I probably put in about 5 hours of labor over a few days and I am so pleased with the results. I wish I had a before picture-but unfortunately, I don't.

Here are my little helpers ready to work (or watch)!

My boys were excited about their new gardening gloves. I bought a nice pair too. (They were mis-marked, so I got $11 gloves for only $3.39!)

Total cost for gloves: $9.77

My neighbors recommended I buy this stuff, "organic hummus and manure," and work it into the soil that was already there. When I opened the first bag, and poured it over the area, my middle son said "that's horse poop!" I had to laugh! Its actually cow poop, but close enough!

Cost for 8 bags: $11.68 (after MIR)

My neighbor picked me up 8 tomato plants, 4 green peppers, 2 yellow squash and 2 zucchini. He also got me this black stuff, a very heavy duty, weed preventer cover. I am told this stuff "will last a lifetime." Cost for all this: $13.

We rolled out the black stuff and I used a box cutter to make an "X" in each spot where we would put the plants. I followed the directions for each plant on how far apart they should be.

The raspberry bushes!!! I was so excited that there were two raspberry bushes already in my pre-existing garden and then my neighbors were so kind to give me 10 more! I couldn't believe it. Last summer, we enjoyed picking their berries, daily, now we will have our own!

The completed garden! I did buy 5 packs of seeds for about $5 that included watermelon, cantaloupe, some pumpkins, and winter squash, but I am still deciding whether I should go ahead and plant those or not. I don't have that much space. I am hoping to make this garden even bigger next year if all goes well.

Total cost breakdown:

Gloves: $9.77

Manure: $11.68

Plants/cover: $13

Extra seeds: about $5

Raspberry bushes: FREE

Total: $39.45

(possibly less if I take the seeds back)

I am participating in DIY Tuesdays here.