How does your garden grow?

So, even though we have over 16 acres of land, I have officially declared that I give up when it comes to gardening in the earth like a normal person. Every time I try, the garden is either attacked just as things are starting to grow by the rabbits or moles, or we come out one morning ready to harvest our bounty, only to find a bunch of bare bushes with deer or elk prints surrounding them. Or, one memorable year, we are almost ready to harvest the corn, only to have the horses break through the fence and eat the entire corn patch - ears, stalks and all.

Uncle.

This year, we will have a garden - in 39 individual pots located just outside my kitchen on the deck. This offers several advantages:

1 - it's visible, so we won't forget to water it (like Glen would let us forget)

2 - deer, elk, rabbits, moles, and horses do not get on my deck

3 - even the birds are pretty scarce on the deck, because it is guarded by the dogs

4 - evidently a lot of the things we want to grow do well in pots

Last weekend we spent a gorgeous Saturday outside getting the pots all ready (Tyler even rigged up a drip watering system, and made me a window box).

The boys are very excited about gardening, and are great little "helpers," here watering the strawberries.

More strawberries (we planted 54 total strawberry plants - in hanging baskets, in pots, on the windowsill, in a strawberry planter..... what can I say, they were on sale).

Glen, examining his creation. One fun thing about having boys? Army men. They are "planted" in many of the pots, "guarding" the plants from "bad guys." It's actually pretty cute to find the green army men among the foliage.

So far, we have planted:

Carrots
Peas
Strawberries
Rhubarb (from a couple years ago - in the ground, not on the deck)
Cilantro
Chives
Watermelon (started inside)
Cantelope (started inside)

On the list to plant as things warm up are:

Basil
Peppers
Beans
Tomatoes
Marigolds
Petunias
Pumpkins (in the ground, not on the deck)
Cucumbers
Sunflowers (by the barn)

It should be a fun summer!! Plus, I stand by the conviction that kids eat vegetables if they are involved in the growing/choosing/preparing/cooking aspects. Not an insignificant bonus!