In case you don’t know me personally, one of my first loves is gardening. The majority of my childhood memories revolve around planting, weeding, harvesting, and then more weeding! In fact, I think the only time in my life I did not have a garden was when I was in college.

I am very fortunate that my husband loves to garden as much as me and until now, we’ve been pretty lucky that our back yard provided the basic needs for a garden… dirt, rain, and sun. But then, I woke up one day in summer 2011 and said, “What’s that?” Then came the reply… “Oh, its our Live Oak Tree that somehow massively spread its wings and now shades the majority of our two 8’x8′ raised beds!”

After some grumbling (okay, quite a bit of grumbling), you finally realize that will get you nowhere and you better start making lemonade from those lemons!

So this year we are going to begin a new garden plot in front of our back porch and lucky you, are going to get to hear all about it!

Here are pictures of our old garden spots and where our new garden spot will be. We are going to do away with the garden to the left but still try to get something to grow in the other garden, despite the shade. And I’m sure there will still be enough dirt remaining in the ‘old’ garden for my kids to enjoy playing in their own garden spot.

Sad, Sad Garden...Go Away Mr. Shade

Our new garden spot...think it has potential?

This was taken a few years back and last year's garden was nowhere near as green.

Awesome lettuce box my husband built me which still gets enough sunlight - yeah!

I hope you’ll humor me and read along as I blog about our garden adventures this year and I hope you’ll try some gardening yourself. From small pots, to old wheelbarrows, to an abandoned neighborhood lot…plant some seeds, give them water, and let the sun do the rest!

I’d love to hear about your gardening adventures!

Jess