For my birthday last week, Paul got me a whole bunch of gardening stuff. Ever since we moved back to Texas I’ve been talking about possibly, maybe making a garden out back like the one my grandmother used to have. But you know, it’s a lot of work. And I had plenty of other excuses. However, I have been inspired lately by my friend Susan’s garden and her post about raised beds on Craftzine and my friend (and college career adviser!) Pamela’s pursuits and her blog, Red White and Grew. And Paul will never turn down a good building project, so once he gave me the seeds, tools, and watering can, I knew this thing was happening. He ended up devising his own lap-joined bed, and we picked up six  6″ x 2″ x 8′ cedar boards to start (the finished bed is 8′ x 4′).

Today his mom came over and helped us to build and fill the bed. Paul really did a lot of the work, but we were good at spreading out the soil and nodding our heads while he explained the plans. We put a mix of compost and garden soil in there along with some manure for good measure. I haven’t done my planting plan yet but I hope to get to it tonight and plant tomorrow. Since I’m late for this first growing season, and only just found a book I like,  it’s going to be a big expiriment. I figure it will get better as things go along and I keep learning. For now I have two tomato starts from Pamela and a whole lotta seeds, so at least something will go right (I hope!). As we were building the bed I realized that today was Earth Day, and I thought this happened to be the perfect form of celebration. After we were done with that project, I pulled up a bunch of the weeds that have been driving me crazy in the back yard. It’s so funny, once you do a little bit of work, the idea of doing more is kind of exciting. The hardest part is getting started!

How did you celebrate Earth Day?