Garden Update

First of all, I wanted to say thank you for the love and encouragement that Daniel and I have received since confessing our fertility struggles.  I know people are praying for us and, to be honest, we have felt comfort in knowing we don't have to go through this alone.  A struggle regardless, our burden has truly felt lighter.  Several people have contacted us about their same struggles, and it has been a blessing to be allowed to walk together in this difficult journey.  I won't be updating frequently on the issue, but we will let you know if developments arise.

I was listening the radio this morning and they were discussing the names of God.  Someone said that no matter the name of your ailment- sickness, depression, unemployment or infertility- Christ's name is stronger.  He knows everything and has it under control.  Everything in our lives has been decreed and allowed by God.  Like a parent, he doesn't want us to be in pain over this.  But, for some reason, He wants us to walk through this.  Sweet relief.

Anyway, back to baseline.  When I married Daniel, he was anxious to teach me how to garden and grow plants because it was something he enjoyed doing, knows a lot about, and it was something we could do while spending time together .  Since we moved into our house, we've done quite a bit of landscaping and finally put in a garden.
We have made some headway on our farm garden (work has been so busy and it has rained a lot!), so I wanted to update you with how things have been going and what we have been up to!

On March 17, we started with seeds in planters using seed-starter soil.  We kept them in front of the back window in our dining room on tv trays (which was totally tacky and I hated it).

Here are some sproutlets at 3-5 days post-plant:

Check those babies out after 2 weeks (beginning of April)!  We had to transplant several green bean and tomato plants to their own pots so they could actually grow and live because they were getting so big.  At this point we weren't out of the clear of a frost (welcome to the Midwest), so we were fearful of planting outdoors just yet. They moved from TV trays to our kitchen table.  Even tackier.

 

Last weekend we finally planted the garden and finished it up during the week (it took us 3 different days to plant!).  We planted 7 jalapeno plants, 18 regular tomato plants, 13 cherry tomato plants, 6 cucumber plants, 5 sweet pepper plants, 18 green bean plants, 9 radish plants, 9 lettuce plants, and 2 blueberry bushes.  We ran out of room for the cantaloupe, so we are trying to figure out where we can put them so we don't have to give them up all together.  We tilled the ground with a rent-a-tiller from Bledsoe Rentals ($40), laid down landscaping timbers for a border (they were only $1.97 for an 8-ft timber!), and attached some rabbit fencing so that those pesky little critters don't eat my plant babies.  Here is where we are at as of right now: