Planning a Garden

Exciting news from the McCarty household!

We are Planning a Garden!

Yep, it's true!  This year the McCarty's are going to grow their own veggies!  Hopefully, we'll have enough to share with family and friends too!


But . . .


We've never attempted this before and are so clueless.  So our harvest might be meager, we shall see.

I'm really hoping to substitute the majority of our store bought produce, with our own homegrown vegetables.

Right now--as I type this post--my husband is on his computer planning it all out.  It's just beautiful. 

I'm getting very anxious to start.

Our garden will be in a raised bed.  We're planning to put in:  tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, green onions, radishes, zucchinis, sweet corn, green beans, peas, spinach and lettuce.  

That's a whole lot a vegetables, folks!

I know it's going to take a whole lot of rain, hard work, sweat and watering.  But it's going to be worth it.  I won't even notice my aching back, come harvest time.

How delightful it will be to grab a basket, go out back, pick the vegetables--that we grew ourselves--and come inside to create delicious, fresh meals for my family.

My husband has this really neat graph going, that tells us how many plants, for each vegetable, can be planted in a square foot section.  I'm glad he is doing this part of the work.  I'm not so good with the planning stage.  I'm more the worker bee type.

It's all about team work here!

. . . and, we do make a good team, if I do say so myself.  He does all the planning, arranging and building.  Then I do all the planting, weeding, watering, harvesting and the cooking.  At least, that's the plan!

I'm praying for a green thumb and a whole lot of help from above!

All this talk of vegetable gardens has reminded me of one of my favorite episodes of The Muppet's Show, where John Denver performs, The Garden Song.

I know I'm almost 40, but I still enjoy this video!

Lyrics to The Garden Song:

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow.  All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground.  Inch by inch, row by row, Someone bless the seeds I sow.  Someone warm them from below, 'til the rain comes tumbling down.  

Pulling weeds and picking stones, man is made of dreams and bones.  Feel the need to grow my own 'cause the time is close at hand.  Grain for grain, sun and rain, find my way in nature's chain, to my body and my brain to the music from the land.  

Plant your rows straight and long, thicker than with prayer and song.  Mother Earth will make you strong if you give her love and care.  Old crow watching hungrily, from his perch in yonder tree.  In my garden I'm as free as that feathered thief up there.  

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow.  All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground.  Inch by inch, row by row, Someone bless the seeds I sow.  Someone warm them from below, 'til the rain comes tumbling down.

"God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done." ~ Author Unknown

"You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt." ~ Author Unknown

"When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and NOT a valuable plant is to pull on it.  If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant." ~ Author Unknown

"The kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth,

One is nearer God's heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth." ~ Dorothy Frances Gurney, "Garden Thoughts"