I Wanna Grow Something Wild and Unruly.

...Or at least something tame and delicious. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not much of an "outdoors wo-man", or green thumb, that's always been my mother. But when Ryan and I moved into our new bungalow though, we instantly noticed there were two raised bed planter boxes in front. We had the same first thought: Vegetable garden! After consulting with my mom, the garden maven, she confirmed that we get enough daily sun exposure to grow ourselves a little garden. Hoorah! Another first.

 Here's a picture of what we're working with:

Upon uploading, I realize the font should be bigger! Oops.

Planter box #2 is the ideal location for optimal sun-time, so we hauled all the soil from planter box #1 over to #2. Here is my ever-so-willing helper in his gardening best:

Take note of the tools of the trade.

Since it's pretty late in the season for planting many things, we decided it would be best to stick to two crops we know would do well, carrots and lettuce. Last week we took a trip to Brim's Home and Garden here in Astoria to pick up some seeds, and for a girl like me (who rarely likes to touch dirt) it was an exciting trip! Who knew there were so many plant options out there. I have a trip planned for the future to grab some tall grass to add to the foliage on our deck, but more on that later. My mom made the suggestion that we stick with Ed Hume seeds because apparently he's a local North-Westerner, so this is what we ended up with:

There were some "out-takes" of Peanut walking across the shot.
Kitty butt + veggies= Always a good time.

It was fun browsing through all the packets of seeds and I can assure you, next spring we will have a wide array of edibles at our disposal. After deciding that today was the day to plant, I realized I needed to actually know how to go about plating a garden, like I said, NOT outdoorsy. Thank god for Google and YouTube. I don't know what people did without those sources of knowledge. I happened upon this basic tutorial from VideoJug which showed me the spacing and proper technique for plating my veggie goodies. It was actually pretty self explanatory. I made sure I was working with a level surface and measured out my rows by using a plank of wood that had unexplainably found it's way into my planter. I didn't have a shovel on had, so I used my God-made-shovelers, my hands. Well, finger if we're getting technical. Then I just did as the website showed and sprinkled a good amount of seeds sporadically about my trench:

Note me awkwardly holding the package with my left hand
while trying to take a picture.

After I got three good rows of carrots, I planted three, semi-squished rows of lettuce and I crafted them all little row tags, as to not get confused:

More professionally made gear crafted out of Ryan's
toothpicks, scrap paper and packing tape!

I then watered and admired my handy work. It doesn't look like much now, but hopefully in 7-10 days of water and sun, these seed babies should be germinating (...or growing if you're a novice like me!). I'm hoping this endeavor goes well, there's something that seems so gratifying about being able to eat off your own land. I'll be sure to update (good or bad) on the happenings in my little garden! Until next time!