Garden update, March 2011

Can you believe it's already MARCH?!! I'm not sure where the last three months have gone but it's time to get moving on the garden. Thankfully, we can grow food all year long here in AZ, but there are a few things I really want to get in this month.

We started with my front flower bed this weekend. I worked on it before Christmas but left it in lasagna mode. I added lots of layers of dirt/straw/manure etc. to build up the dirt into something that would feed my plants! Check out how that process works here.  It hasn't been very pretty because I've been a little busy lately. Here's how it looked.

Little flower seedlings were popping up despite my neglecting it.

But - when my girls and I went out and turned over a few handfuls of dirt, look what we found!

Wormies! As my youngest would say.

My girls were very excited by this development. Not only did we find the few in my hand, we found over 30 worms in only 2 or 3 shovels full of dirt. (Thank you crazy rainy season!) The girls know that worms in the dirt are a sign of living soil because worms aerate the soil and leave special "fertilizer" that provide nutrients for our little garden. My oldest, who is super girlie, consented to touch one.  My two year old has no fear of "wormies" and wanted to hold one. She did pretty well and was very gentle.

She only smushed one.

It was an accident.

She was deeply concerned about it.

- For a two year old. -

We gently placed it back in the dirt and covered it.

Oops.

We also put a few plants in the dirt. Of course, we choose to do it right before the rain started and the temps dropped. So, we'll see if these guys survive. Thankfully, nature is forgiving...

The front plants are Calendula and the back one is Borage.

Stay tuned! Updates on my other garden and plants to go in this time of year - to come soon