Liz’s Mother’s Day Vegetable Garden

by The Meal Makeover Moms on May 11th, 2009

Liz's Vegetable Garden by you.

Ever since Michelle Obama planted an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn, I’ve been green with envy.  For years now, I have wanted to plant a proper vegetable garden on my own lawn, but given my inability to keep even the tiniest of house plants alive for more than twenty minutes I have always doubted my ability to do so.

lizgardening

After sharing the cool news of Obama’s garden with Tim and the boys, we decided, “If Michelle can do it, so can we!”  So yesterday, we spent a sunny and warm Mother’s Day prepping and planting our very first vegetable garden.  We decided to start small with a modest 8-X-8 foot plot.  Here’s what we planted so far and what we hope to plant in the coming weeks:  carrots, green beans, sugar snap peas, sunflowers, marigolds, salad greens, Swiss chard, strawberries (okay, we only had room for one plant), herbs, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

We decided to call ourselves The “Green” Gardeners since we’re newbies at all this, and I have assigned each family member an official “job” title.

  • Tim:  “Head Weeder & Waterer” … he did a super job clearing the plot and building the fence, and he’ll now be in charge of weeding and watering (whether he likes it or not).
  • Liz:  “First Lady of the Garden” … though I’m a bit directionally challenged having sandwiched the salad greens between two towering rows of sunflowers and green beans, I’ll do my best to make this a world-class garden.
  • Josh: “Seed Starter” … he’s busy behind the scenes planting seeds in little pots and hopes to do some major transplanting in the coming weeks.
  • Simon: “Jack of All Trades, Master of Soccer” … he’s been there to help out every step of the way, but when a soccer ball catches his eye, he’s off and running.

simongardening

As our garden grows over the spring, summer and fall, I’ll post updates to the blog. I’ll also add photos to our flickr page so you can check out my family’s progress.  If you have a vegetable garden, post a comment and let us know what you’ve planted so far!

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7 Comments | Filed Under CulinaryAdventures, Vegetables 

7 Responses to “Liz’s Mother’s Day Vegetable Garden”

  1. Adena on May 11th, 2009

    Too cute! I haven’t planted my garden as yet (still wondering/worrying about those New England frosts) but hope to, soon. I usually plant lots of cukes and tomatoes, and had good luck with green beans last year. I even had some zucchinis! Also, I now have raspberry bushes that come up every year!

    Good luck, by the way, with the rabbit!

  2. Aggie on May 13th, 2009

    I love your garden Liz! I started a modest garden this year too…my grandfather has a very green thumb and I am hoping it rubs off on me! Good luck and I hope you get many yummy vegetables! I absolutely love that Mrs. Obama is setting such a great example by starting her own garden!

  3. Savor on May 17th, 2009

    We just did our garden today but left room to get carrots.

  4. Jamie on May 22nd, 2009

    Liz,
    I love your garden. I started a container garden with patio tomatoes, green & red peppers and several different herbs. I don’t have the greenest thumb but I’m trying. I want to do a small garden next year with my 2 daughters. Looking forward to seeing how your garden grows.

    Thanks for visiting my blog and adding it to your blog list.

  5. Renata on May 25th, 2009

    I haven’t started mine yet this year… I think I got started after memorial day last year, so I suppose it’s not too late. This will be my second year. It was fun last year and I called it the mercy garden, because it was by God’s mercy that anything would turn out right :-)
    Here’s a glimpse of what you should expect throughout the summer:
    http://nurturingnotes.blogspot.com/2008/08/mercy-garden.html
    Have fun!

  6. Liz on May 25th, 2009

    Well, so far, our Swiss Chard has died. Other than that, our carrot, sunflower, bean, and sugar snap pea seeds are sprouting. It’s very exciting! Still to come are tomatoes, herbs, and cucumbers.

  7. Lean Cuts of Meat Equal A Leaner Grocery Bill | Meal Makeover Moms' Kitchen on June 26th, 2009

    [...] There’s been a lot of talk over the past year about clever ways consumers can cut back on their day-to-day food expenses.  There is certainly no shortage of ideas for saving money at the supermarket.  Between us, Janice is by far the more frugal shopper.  Her top tips for trimming the family food budget:  She’s a member of a CSA, looks for supermarket specials and sales in her local paper, buys in bulk, and clips coupons.  As for Liz, well, um, she’ll just plead the fifth on that one.  All kidding aside, Liz buys in bulk at Costco and is saving on produce this summer thanks to her backyard garden. [...]

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