Planning for the long run

So, I was trying to figure out what I would need to do in order to make eating healthier easier for me. I came up with a couple solutions. One is to menu out at least a week in advance so that I can prepare. That is, at least until I develop healthy eating as a habit. The other idea I came up with is to grow my own vegetables, so I always have them on hand and in abundance.

I spent the summer last year at my parents' house in Vegas where my dad, myself and a couple of my sisters started a 'practice' garden. Aside from my dad, none of us really had any gardening experience, having all been raised in the city. But my dad didn't have the time it takes to tend to the garden himself, so we all worked on it all summer. One of my jobs was to water it everyday since we hadn't installed any kind of irrigation system. So here I am pregnant, it's a hundred and something degrees outside, and I'm watering this enormous garden every day. I can't tell you it was the most fun I've had and I certainly can't tell you I wanted to do it everyday. But, alas, it had to be done if I were to enjoy the fruits of my labors. And enjoy them, I did. I fought the war against the bugs, weeds and heat. I mulched frequently to ensure proper water absorption, and I was so proud of all the vegetables I was able to harvest. I loved showing off that garden, of which I was immensely proud.

The reason I digress is to illustrate my experience with gardening. Now, I'm not thinking about going crazy and planting 40 zucchini plants or anything like that. No, I figure if I'm going to keep it up, I should keep it small. So Sophia and I trotted off to Lowe's and spent $120 on vegetable seedlings, plant food, compost and a ton of flower plants. There's no reason this garden of ours can't be beautiful! Not to mention the bees we're hoping they attract.

I bought zucchini, crookneck yellow squash, green bell peppers, tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley, strawberries, honeydew, cantaloupes and some pumpkin seeds. The pumpkin seeds made Sophia really happy. That will be exciting to carve pumpkins we grew ourselves.

I'm turning up the earth myself instead of hiring someone else as Pasquale suggested. I figure it will be good exercise and being outside will be good for me. Not to mention maybe add a little color that I so desperately need. I'm also hoping that this will be a good bonding and learning experience for Sophia and myself. We could use something that we do together every day that doesn't include Dominic. (I know she's feeling a little put aside ever since the little one came along.)

Of course, no good idea isn't without it's own set of hurdles. As soon as we starting tearing up the courtyard, it started raining. At first, it was just a little sprinkling intermittently, so I thought we could work right through it. But then, it decided that wasn't enough to keep me indoors and just starting pouring on us.

Sophia, of course, was thrilled because that meant she could play out in the rain with the umbrellas again. I'm a little bummed though. if there's one thing I know about myself, it's that when I get the urge and energy to do something, I have to do it right then and there, or it doesn't get done for a long time. I'm an all or nothing personality. So, I just had to wait until it stopped and dried up a little to keep working outside.

The thing with the dirt here, is it's more like clay than anything else. You add copious amounts of water to this clay-like earth and you get the worst shoe-sucking mud that takes FOREVER to dry. So, we started planting with small steps. Sophia helped me transplant a flower plant into a pot and she used peat pellets to start her own little mini growhouse of tomatoes. She's very excited about the garden project. I'm just hoping I can get it all done before I lose the momentum and before it gets too hot to really be outside for long periods of time.

I'll post pictures when we get it all put in. I'm hoping to get it done by this weekend. (as long as Dominic allows me to.) He's not really keen on my gardening it seems. Every time I go outside, he decides he needs attention or he's hungry or he just wants to play. We'll see what happens.