I have a black thumb.  I am an equal opportunity plant killer.   I’ve killed the hardiest of houseplants.  I’ve killed flowers my sweet little boys have planted just for me for Mother’s Day.

So now I have my very first vegetable garden.   I’ve lived in the country for 5 years, and this is the first time in my whole life that I have tried to grow vegetables.

It’s a tiny little 4×4 garden and I’m following the ideas in the book All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! by Mel Bartholomew  In the photo, you can see where I used Erin’s idea at $5dinners.com to use masking tape to mark off each square in my garden.  Now that everything is all settled, I’ve removed the tape.

My step-mother-in-law encouraged me try gardening by bringing me 2 tomato plants, 3 pepper plants, and a bunch of marigolds.   I purchased some broccoli and zucchini plants to add to my garden.

So far, so good.  I’ve been trying very hard to remember to water the garden and check for weeds, and so far, my little plants seem to be growing.   I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time,  but I do feel good about trying to grow our own food.  I wanted to plant even more than this, but my sweet husband who knows my history with plants suggested we wait to see how this year goes.

He may be right, but I hope not.  Playing in the dirt is fun!