A little veggie patch

I call myself a ‘hope for the best’ gardener. Plant seeds, water occasionally and hope for a harvest some day. My most successful crops have been cherry tomatoes and pumpkins that have sprouted from the compost heap.

My little veggie patch began as one garden bed and a compost. One day we brought home a beagle puppy. He loved to follow his nose and eat everything (he still does!). So my wonderful husband built a white picket fence with a charming little gate around the garden patch. This was our iso project at the beginning of the covid lockdowns. Since then the garden has had various levels of love and attention. I’ve had some success as I’ve adopted my ‘hope for the best’ philosophy. This year however, with the help of my dad, I’ve put a little more effort into growing more herbs and vegetables and the little garden has never looked better!

One thing I’ve longed for this in this little veggie patch is a mud kitchen for our three kids. I’ve imagined them creating concoctions while I weeded and tended to the plants. Every now and then I would scroll through facebook market place looking for the perfect kitchen to upcylce. They were either too expensive or too far away to collect. Until finally, one day I found a simple bench with a double sink and a working tap. It was only $50 and just down the road. All it needed was a lick of paint.

The kids loved slapping on the white paint leftover from the fence. I think they got more paint on themselves than the kitchen. But in the words of my four year old, painting was “Really fun! Really awesome!”

I screwed in a few hooks for the utensils I picked up at a secondhand store and the kitchen was complete!

Now the kitchen sits in one corner of the garden. The pumpkin vine curling around, securing its place in the little veggie patch.

The plants are getting tended to, the kids are playing and learning. All we can do now is hope for the best.