There’s something so therapeutic and aesthetically pleasing about green, blossoming plants and rich, brown soil.

Our garden is finally up and going! Well, it has actually been going for a few weeks, but now that I have a blog I can post on it!

This isn’t our first garden; we had one about 4 years ago, pre-kiddo, but since I was working so much, most of the responsibility for it’s care ended up on my husband who, unlike me, is not terrified as spiders.

Now that our son is more mobile, we decided to do restart our garden this year. And given COVID-19, less-frequent trips to the grocery store, and fears of food shortages, we figured we would need a garden this year more than ever.

Plus, since we’ve been in quarantine for the last month with no end date in sight, we have something that not only keeps us busy, but gets us out of the house. And, there’s something so therapeutic and aesthetically pleasing about green, blossoming plants and rich, brown soil.

This year, we’re sharing the responsibility of the garden with our good friends/neighbors, Ali & Ryan. We’ve been able to add more beds, widen our varieties of veggies, and we even planted their potted fig tree, who is doing great and has started budding!

The first week was so exciting but also the most exhausting; between pulling weeds and trying to keep a bored toddler occupied long enough to get one bed weeded, I imagined how, in just a few short months, I’d be elbow deep in tomatoes, cucumbers, and berries, begging family and neighbors to take them off our hands.

I must admit, I haven’t helped out in the garden as much as I would like to. Wrangling a toddler is no easy feat, let alone while he’s within close range of sharp gardening tools. So while the others are weeding, planting, and watering, I’m chasing, soothing, and wrangling a 3-year-old who is angry he can’t throw his toys into the street. I’m pretty bummed about it, but luckily John and the neighbors are understanding.

We started most everything in seed start kits, but unfortunately, after a week of torrential downpour, most of them flooded with water and died. The only ones that survived were the peas, acorn squash, and a few of the sweet peppers. Live and learn.

We have since then replaced everything else with starts from our small local nursery, and they’re all in the ground. I was particularly bummed about the loss of the tomatoes until my husband reminded me that last time we tried starting tomatoes (beefsteak, Roma, and cherry) from seeds, they all died too (albeit not from rain). Apparently tomatoes are hard to start from seeds, maybe? I’m not a garden expert by any means.

Besides the peppers, acorn squash, peas, and tomatoes, we also have beets, cucumbers, four types of lettuces (which we’ve already been harvesting!), spinach, radishes, broccoli, leeks, onions, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, lavender, sage, rosemary, and catnip. I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

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Today, when checking on the garden, I noticed that of the few strawberry plants that are starting to bear fruit, one of the little fruitlings is getting much bigger! It should hopefully be ready to eat in a week, but I’m known to be wrong from time to time (don’t tell my husband).

Also, one of the pea shoots is starting to grab onto the rope stringed to the trellis. Soon it, and the other pea plants, will be towering over the trellis, over the fence, and grabbing onto the trees on the other side, and we’ll be complaining about how they’re taking over the garden. They grow up so fast.

I’m so excited for what our garden has in store for us in the next few months. It’s literally one of the things I can be patient for. There is no instant gratification in gardening, which I is one of the reasons I love it.

Check out more pics of the garden below!

Are you gardening? If so, what are you planting? Tell me all about it in the comments below, or on Instagram and Twitter!