Preparing the garden

This is where the garden was to be planted.  We actually had our trampoline here for a year and it started killing the grass.  I talked Travis into putting the garden here since there was no grass already.  If you can't see, the ground is horrible.  It's clay and rocky.  They don't call it ringing rocks for nothing.  When you hit the shovel into the rock, it definitely rings your hands.  I ended up getting 3 yards of topsoil/mushroom compost.  We had borrowed the neighbor's rototiller and it broke.  I was waiting for Travis to fix it so I could mix in the topsoil with the dirt but it was taking him too long.  He decided to try and mix it in with the skid loader.  Sorry, no pictures of this step.  It all happened quick and I wanted to make sure he didn't run over the flowers in my yard.

After Travis mixed up the topsoil and the clay, I decided to start planting.  I really wanted to get the plants in the ground.  Some of them were starting to die because they were too big in for the pot or there were too many in one pot.  This being my first year of serious planting, I had to start from the beginning.  I had to buy pots for the plants and it was getting expensive.  I decided to consolidate the plants, four per pot.  This was not the greatest idea, but you do what you have to, right?!

Last year the garden was at my mom's house.  We planted the plants wherever.  There was no rhyme or reason where we put them.  I learned from my sister and her husband that certain plants cannot be put next to each other.  This year I looked into what plants work well together and what did not.  The picture is of the start of planting.  It was really hot out.  I had some shade, as you can see, but I still had to stop and take many water breaks.