Green Thumb

When I was growing up my father used to make us plant a garden. It was torture. I know it sounds horrible doesn't it :). We lived in a desert and we ended up turning a rock river bed into our garden. There was lots of moving rocks and red faces that year. We even fenced it in to keep the dogs out. I remember watering it and seeing our vegetables grow, but that's about it. He grew up on a farm and I'm sure that he and my mom had good intentions of having a good garden, but I don't remember it really happening that way. Maybe they wanted to teach us about work and surviving off the land. Or maybe they did it because the prophet had said to have a garden. I'm not sure why, but it has never been a fond memory for me, mostly because I remember dying plants and hot dry summers (or the work that went into making it happen). I'm sure my perspective is off because I was young and I didn't want to do it (maybe it worked and I just forgot).
Well, it is my turn to be the parent and learn about gardening. Jeff and I have yet to try a garden in all of our 7 years of marriage, but have wanted to grow our own food so this is the year of the garden! We are doing square foot gardening and have an 8x4 foot planter with all of our yummy food trying to grow. Monday for FHE we had the kids help plant our vegetables. They have been very excited about having a garden so that was also motivating to help this garden happen. We have tomato, broccoli, and bell pepper plants and pumpkin, cucumber, corn, carrots, squash, cantaloupe, letuce, and watermelon seeds. I would post photos for you, but our camara died so those will have to wait for a new camara to be purchased. The kids even helped make signs for the garden so we know which food is planted where. They are so cute.
It is exciting to grow our own food and we hope we end up with a green thumb from our gardening experience! Once we get a new camara and when our food starts growing I'll be happy to update on the progress of our garden. Let me know if you have any good gardening tips (you know like, don't kill your plants, don't over water, or how to get rid of bugs when they start eating my food, etc). Wish me luck!