And then there was a garden

On Tuesday, we got five and a half yards of compost dirt delivered! Dave and our friends Brent and Mike leveled the raised beds on the clay dirt and then Dave, B, and our neighbour and I shoveled and wheelbarrowed this beautiful black dirt into the five beds:

The next two evenings were spent getting supplies and some greenhouse plants. And yesterday was the big planting day!!! It was ridiculously windy but otherwise a pretty nice day for doing it. My friend Alissa came over and spent the entire day teaching me and helping me plant. We started with the planter I bought for cherry tomatoes:

Then we hung up some trellis for sweet peas to climb up (we also put some against the garage for black-eyed susan vine). The stuff we used for trellis is actually called critter guard! Interesting! Here's a view of it beautifully nailed to the fence (thanks to Alissa's excellent workmanship):

Then it was on to more planting. Just have to show you a pic of the pepper plants. I think they are so great! The wind was really rough on them so we later ended up putting milk and juice containers around them for more protection:

Besides a roma tomato plant and some marigolds, the rest of the garden is growing from seed. Here's a shot of the homesteader and sugar peas rows:

Some seeds were planted in rows but many were just scattered in sections (such as the carrots and lettuces). I think we used the space wisely and there shouldn't be too much weeding necessary once things get growing! Here's a rough outline of what and where we planted things (click on it if you want to see it clearer):

Are you ready to see an actual picture of what it looks like now that I just took this morning? Here it is:

Nice, hey? If you're wondering, the bamboo teepee is for my green beans to trellis up and the little plants that are scattered are marigolds that have amazing lemon-scented leaves (they're a natural pesticide). I'm so happy with how my garden is shaping up. I still need to build some trellis netting for the peas to climb but that won't happen until they start coming up. The only big thing left to do is level the pathways and spread rock. My other goal is to find a little table or chair (just for looks really) to fill the space where the gate swings into.

Thanks to the boys for their help and to Alissa for spending her whole day off helping me. I already love having a garden and think I'm going to be out there a lot this summer, even when I don't need to be! I'll try to lay off posting about gardening stuff for a while now but I know you will be seeing pics when things start growing!!!