Seeds, Dirt, Love.

What better way to know what we're eating then to grow it ourselves! My husband is the diligent gardener and I, his helper, am the diligent water girl. 

Let me start by sharing this verse that I found during this gardening experience. One day, if God is so gracious to allow it, when we have our own house with a large garden I'd like this on a nice wooden sign. (I've got big dreams!)

"So neither the one who plants 
nor the one who waters is anything,
but only God, who makes things grow."

 (1 Corinthians 3:7)

When my Mr. Incredible started putting our garden together this year, I was skeptical.  We moved into an apartment in December and I didn't see how we were going to be able to grow much of anything when we didn't have any ground to plant it in. I was worried that we were going to take up too much space. I didn't know what the neighbors were going to think of the fish fertilizer's lasting aroma. I worried about the water bill. And the list went on and on, if there was a reason I could come up with to be "cautious" about our gardening, I thought of it. Don't get me wrong, I loved the idea of growing our own stuff - but what little experience I had with gardening was years ago, and definitely during a time when I didn't care where my food came from. All in all, I feared that it was going to be more trouble than it was worth. But Mr. Incredible was confident and excited. Then he told me that this was something that he felt he was supposed to do, so how could I be a hindrance to that?

Mr. Incredible started the majority of our plants off as seeds; diligently growing them in his little greenhouse before it even got warm out. He had a handy dandy little Soil Blocker that he picked up online at Johnny Selected Seeds. He made these rectangle clumps of dirt and carefully put the seeds in each one. Add water + sunshine + love, and before we knew it they were sprouting and growing. 

That's when the man started using up all the spare room on my porch! ) He would bring home flower pots and gardening things almost every week. I was still iffy and self-conscious  about the garden, but I knew how strongly he felt about it. Soon he had the our whole side of the sidewalk filled with plants. We had peppers, zucchinni, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppermint, strawberries, potatoes, and flowers. I'm sure I'm missing stuff, but he did an amazing job! And I soon realized that I, too, was sold on our garden!

We're still picking some of our tomatoes and the potatoes will get dug up soon. The plants never bothered the neighbors; even the pizza guy who asked my neighbor if, by chance, our tomato plant was actually marijuana didn't seem to mind it being there. Imagine that! We even shared some of our vegetables and got to know the neighbors a bit more. 

I looked at our plants today, and I'll be sad to see my sidewalk cleared for the winter. Not all of our plants made it through, we had a few casualties due to bugs and worms. But we had quite a little harvest. There's something so satisfying about know that we grew what is on our plates! Oh my goodness, Mr. Incredible made some cream cheese stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon the other day, it was LEGENDARY! ;) Mr. Incredible is already planning our garden over the winter and next year, and I look forward to it wholeheartedly.