The Prophet said to plant a garden, and that's what I'll do!

When we were house hunting down here, we had a short list of things that the new house HAD to have. It needed to be a ranch style house with a front porch for a swing, have a jacuzzi tub, and a place for a garden. Any of you who have been to our house know that it is a 2 story with a nice landscaped yard with no porch. It does have a big tub but no jacuzzi. 0 for 4. I am not quite sure how we ended up here.

(Scott had asked our Realtor where the Temple was and she replied that she had just shown a really nice ranch style home near the Temple and so we decided to go check it out. While we waited for the owner to leave, we noticed another house for sale and felt drawn to look inside. 5 or 6 steps past the front door and the house had me. I felt so at home. I didn't love everything about the house, but I knew it loved me. When we prayed for direction in choosing the new house, we felt that this was the correct choice, no front porch and all!)

For two years we have been trying to figure out how to have a garden without digging up the yard. Originally, we planned to get rid of the swing set and take out the rocks and put in dirt, but the grand kids came and enjoyed it so much we just couldn't get rid of it. So, our effort to follow the Prophet and plant a garden has included the use of containers, retaining walls and good ole creativity.

The first two pictures are of our tomato plants. You can also see the cucumber plants at the end of the line. We had peas earlier this year in the empty pots you see. Behind this tomato plant you can see the strawberry patch. We extended a short retaining wall and planted strawberries. They have been struggling because somebodies hairy black monster likes to lay there when it gets hot. The next 2 pictures are of our squash crop. We planted it in the front yard in the circle around a tree. It has grown like crazy, but there are only 3 squash.
Next is our awesome corn crop. Scott thought that we could plant some corn and peas in the spaces between the blocks of the retaining wall on the side. It has been interesting to see the little plants struggle to grow. The peas did pretty well but the plants were pretty spindly and only about a third of the corn survived that same hairy black beast! He has it out for corn for some reason. Out patch is really adorable. The stalks are only about 2 1/2 feet tall. Every stalk has at least one ear growing and you can see that they are very small. You can also see one of our pepper plants at the end of the corn row.

We have had fun with our little crop. Amazingly, the tomatoes have been fruitful and we are enjoying fresh picked cherry and grape tomatoes just about every day! We have also "harvested" peppers, cucumbers, peas, and squash.

So, we don't have a big garden, but have been blessed for our efforts. Now, how can we add a porch to the front?