Project Complete

Today is the day you've been anxiously awaiting: our garden update! Haha, ok maybe not, but we are very excited about our first "Swan Family Garden" and the prospect of raising a few (at least we hope we get some) of our own vegetables. Besides, we figure this is good practice for when we really have a garden.

So...what have we done this week? I'll have to be honest, not a whole lot. We made sure we watered it every day. We also looked out the window a lot and smiled at our little garden. Oh, and we've been checking for the sun at different times during the day, because all our veggie packets said to give the seeds lots of sun. This was our first challenge because it was overcast most of the week. But finally today the sun came out! We decided we should probably scoot the planter box out away from the railing because the railing was shading our box all day.

We also decided to build the second box today. Before General Conference started, Aaron ran to Home Depot and got a few more boards, more dirt, and our tomato plants. The pictures are mostly for Lisa's benefit (or Jared's?) but we decided to include them on here so that any would-be planter box gardeners out there could see our idea and use it if they choose to.

First Aaron built the frame. We decided that this box would be three planks wide. The first one was only two planks wide. Second Aaron flattened the frame and screwed the side planks on. (He did it a different way with the first box, but said this was lots easier.) Then he put up the sides and looped the wire. (He probably would have done the ends first, but he needed to use the saw, and Lincoln was sleeping.) He screwed a hole in the top of each brace, and fed the wire through and looped it, and then ran it across to the other side, put it through the hole, and tied it off. Last Aaron screwed in the ends.

After that was the fun part. We filled it with dirt and planted seeds! This box has onions and cucumbers in it. We also planted our tomato plant in the first box, and another tomato plant in a flower pot. We aren't sure how much room the tomatoes need, but we do know that pretty soon we will have to build a wire cage for them to climb up.

So far the tomatoes are the only green showing in our garden; but, like I said, it's been overcast and rainy this week. We are really hoping that the upcoming week will bring lots of sunshine. Then, hopefully, little green sprouts will start appearing in our planter boxes. Stay tuned for more garden updates.