I have long been wanting a gardening area for the kids. I envisioned one where we could plant veggies, berries and kid friendly flowers. My husband, Bryce and I talked about this decided to build a raised bed on the south side of our house. We shared our idea with our neighbors, Peter and Michele, in hopes that we could, together, create a small children's garden in between our houses. They became excited about the idea too and decided to build a raised bed as well. Our plan was to have two shared raised beds.
Bryce found great
building directions on
Sunset.com. The raised beds would be 8 feet X 4 feet and constructed out of cedar. A few weekends later Bryce & Peter had them all ready to go!
Now for the super fun part, deciding what to plant! Michele and I planned on planting different things in each bed so we could have more variety. This would also allow us to gain more experience about what grew well. My mom suggested we try
square foot gardening as a way to get as many plants as possible into our beds. The idea is that you get more
room in your garden when you plant in
squares instead of rows. I looked it up on line and found it was a common practice in urban gardens - perfect for us! Of course our beds are rectangles so we'll be taking a creative approach to the
square concept, but hey, should be okay.
The girls and I started 7 different plants in
peat pots a few weeks ago and they are ready to be planted. In our bed, we're going to plant: ghost pumpkins, carrots, sun gold cherry tomatoes, and potatoes. We're not sure about the rest. But I'll definitely keep you posted on our progress. Fingers crossed for no more rain, hail or snow, we're ready to plant!
Wouldn't you know it, our neighbors also have an enormous hazelnut tree. Raspberries, currants, strawberries, mirabelles, and now hazelnuts. I told my neighbor her backyard is like a grocery store. She told me that this year the nuts are mostly all eaten by worms. Usually the birds eat the worms but this year there aren't as many birds around. Sad isn't it?
Sure enough, nearly all of the nuts we found on the ground had worm holes in them. Her husband managed to find one that was not ruined by a worm and cracked it for me to try. I was surprised that they can be eaten without being roasted. When they are ready to eat the shell is whitish green in color. It only turns brown after it is pulled from the branch. I'm new to hazelnut trees so I found all of this fascinating. The grocery stores are currently carrying fresh bags of hazelnuts in their produce departments.
The girls are such gatherers and loved filling their buckets with nuts that had fallen onto our lawn. We examined their collection for worm holes and eventually got a hammer so we could investigate the nuts even further. Much to our surprise we found 3 nuts with live worms in them. Little, white, grub-like worms that are about 1/2 inch long. They turn the nut meat into something resembling sawdust. I was repulsed. Eva was the first one to pick them up and "bring them to safety" by putting them in our garden. This from my daughter who wouldn't touch the dirt while digging potatoes.
