For all you Phoenicians, hasn’t this been a loooong summer?  Anybody?  I am so happy to finally be able to open my sliding glass and front doors early in the morning to get a nice breeze blowing through my house after having it shut up with stale air for the past 3 months. This always gets me in the mood to start planning my garden.

I thought I’d share a photo before my new blank piece of backyard gets planted, just in case there’s anyone out there wondering how to get a garden up and going.

I surveyed the land before I even started thinking about the garden plan about 6 months ago when we moved in.  Choosing the right spot for my garden is important because it needs to get full sun at some point in the day.  If it could get some kind of shade also, that would be even better, preferably from the late afternoon sun, but if not, it will be ok without it. Once I picked out my spot I had to wait, and wait and wait…..until, now!!

I, first of all, had my boys wheel over some old horse manure (fresh horse manure is not so great) from my neighbor and spread it out evenly.  Secondly, they spread out the cut grass from our yard that we have been saving along with the kitchen leftover scraps from our compost pile.  It really didn’t have enough time to compost up very well, but it will eventually in the soil.  This year won’t turn out the best soil, but slowly amending the soil with organic material year after year now will make great soil.

I just ordered my seeds and now just need to sweet talk my husband and oldest son to till my new garden space!