New Adventures

The quilt is chugging along, 5 out of 7 rows together now. I know I hate putting the rows together, so as I get each row finished I'm attaching them. Almost ready for the borders.

But, in the meantime, I've finally got a garden box. I did quite a bit of research and got some expert advice, but in the end we kept it really simple. Hopefully, not too simple.
With my father-in-law's help, I built a simple 4'x8'x12" frame (no bottom) and filled it with five layers of cardboard. I've been saving boxes for awhile for this! My garage looks much cleaner now that I've finally used them.

The toddler made sure we included lots of love in the garden.
We then collected rich compost from the county dump. You need a shovel, a truck and a strong back, but this is incredible stuff.
And we filled it to the brim with nothing but rich, earthy compost. Yum.
And then, with Sprite's help, I planted three types of tomatoes, petite peppers, jalapeno peppers and bush beans. Yeah! I'm going to try starting my garden from seed later, but since I was cutting it close for a fall garden I went with transplants for now.

Decisions I might come to regret include not sinking posts for the box and not using a weed mat. I deferred to my father-in-law on the posts, and I do have reason to believe he knows what he's doing. I'm just hoping we don't get a hurricane that proves him wrong. And, I decided not to bother with a weed mat having read the layers of cardboard were sufficient. The cardboard will decompose, though, and while the grass should be long gone I'm not clear on what happens with the nematodes. If they find their way in to my garden, I may find myself digging it out to put a weed mat down.

But, for now, Sprite and I have an exciting new garden.