One week down, so many more to go...

Gardening is not something to do while pregnant...not because its harmful but because I CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING.  Seriously, I know I have a bad memory but this is bad.  I have had to map out the garden square by square.  A few days ago we picked up some herb seeds to plant amongst the garden.  I went out yesterday afternoon to do just that and by the time I was done, realization hit me, I'd already planted pumpkin in the same (cinder block) holes that I just put chives...so I'm hoping that the two can get along, at least till I know what is what coming up out of there. 

We've had a few things like lettuce, spinach and a few other things coming up but tonight when I went out to water, I was shocked to find so much stuff. 

RIGHT BACK BED

The back half of this bed is onions.  None of these have come up yet but the front half has lots of beet sprouts that have popped up.  I love the bright green leaves with the dark reddish purple stems.

RIGHT MIDDLE BED

This is one of my favorite beds, not necessarily because of what is in it, but because it was the first one to start sprouting.  It made me happy to watch these tiny little plants pop out of the ground.  In this bed we have three squares of beets (we really like beets), two squares of spinach, one swiss chard, two lettuce, two kale, and two celery.  Everything but the celery has started sprouting. 

RIGHT FRONT BED

This bed has broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage in it.  I'm excited that all three plants have come up.  Around the perimeter we've also planted dill which is supposed to help with a cabbage beetle or something like that.

MIDDLE BED

 This is our middle bed and its a little bigger than the rest.  Since it was the last bed planted, nothing has come up quite yet but it contains two types of carrots, four types of tomatoes, artichoke, bell pepper, and butter nut squash.  In the back holes we planted some mammoth sunflower seeds.  Apparently I wasn't paying attention when we picked these out because they can get upwards of 12 feet tall, but they are supposed to produce lots of sunflower seeds.  The pop bottles up front are covering our strawberry plants since our fencing isn't quite done yet and I didn't want to invite the deer in.  They actually seem to be doing quite well under there.  Down each side is some basil and chives.  

LEFT BACK BED

 LEFT MIDDLE BED

LEFT FRONT BED

Each of these beds have one corn per square.  I was worried about them being too close but apparently many people have had success with Square Foot Gardening and corn.  Around each corn is four green bean or four pea plants.  They will use the corn as a trellis. There is also one cucumber (regular or pickle) in each square.  These will wind around the base of the corn and help with predator prevention (racoons don't like the spiny vines) and they also help to crowd out the weeds.  Being that by the end of summer I will be over half way through my pregnancy, I see this as beneficial.  

Last but not least, Luke's Garden...

Up until tonight, there hasn't been anything.  I was rather shocked when I started watering and there was three different sprouts in his garden.  Sadly I don't know what they are because he was taking random seeds from me as I planted in the other beds.  His garden is our mystery garden and probably will be until things get much much bigger.  

Along with growing plants, we also have a growing baby.  I'm very excited for this week.  Tomorrow is my last day of work with WSU until next October.  I have mixed feelings about this because I've fallen in love with teaching the kids and it makes it even harder when you're walking through the store and all of a sudden a child yells out "HI MRS. JOHNSON".  I am excited to get a break before next falls packed schedule.  It will also give me time to start organizing and working on our property.  

This week is also our first ultrasound.  We wanted to put it off till week 12 rather than going in at 8 weeks along for medical reasons.  They got us in towards the end of this week so I'll be about 11.5 weeks along and baby should be big enough.  Baby is between 1.5 and 2 inches long right now and I'm so excited to see him/her.  I wish we could find out the gender but we can't find that out till late July/early August.  My morning sickness has subsided for the most part but I am dealing with some horrid heartburn now.  Most nights I have a hard time getting to sleep and I often wake up earlier and earlier.  I will post pictures this next week from the ultrasound if we get them.