Creative gardening

The other day, Beloved came in from his commute munching on a handful of fresh cherry tomatoes. "I love having a garden I can steal from," he commented. He also reminisced on the year we planted beans.

I love fresh garden food, but I've been a little stuck because we don't have a lot of shade in our yard. Sure, we could plant more out there, but I would have to be better about watering...or...maybe "trick" the kids into doing more watering. That got me thinking!

Next year, I think it might be fun to build/plant some very interactive gardens. Instead of putting in normal garden plots, we could build "teepee" frames.

This frame used large tree branches, which I'm pretty sure we could find for free, but we could also purchase more durable poles and hope to get two seasons out of them. Build one or two of them, depending on the size, and then plant climbing plants around the base. Seeds are cheap and if you plant them in the right time, they should grow no problem!  Or buy starter plants for a couple more bucks.  One side could be beans, another for zucchini or another squash, one for tomatoes...climbing plants, or at least ones that do much better woven upward. Water every day, and see what happens.

I think the kids would enjoy the playspaces created as well as harvesting the veggies. It's worth a serious consideration, I think.  The bigger question is how will it stand up to the neighborhood kids???