The new vegetable garden

On Sunday, the three-year long backyard project officially came to an end. That's when I planted the vegetables in the newly-built garden Ryan did on Victoria Day weekend.

It took him all day. But when he was done, the empty space of dirt and weeds at the end of the patio was bordered by a shiny new brick wall and filled with dirt. Bye bye weeds, hello vegetables!

I hope.

I can do flowers -- in fact, I cut out a new flower garden around the lilac tree (and took down the dead half of the tree) the weekend after Victoria Day. I love flower gardening. I have perennials in the back (in the new garden), annuals and perennials in the front and three flower boxes, hand-picked and planted by me, on my deck.

But vegetables -- yikes, who knows if I can keep them both alive and pest-free until they're ready for eating in August.

I'm going to try. I planted peppers, cucumbers, onions, zuccini, chives, cataloupe, peas and tomatoes -- lots and lots of tomatoes. Too many I think, because the plants are closer together than the label says they should be. But what the heck, it's an experiment, right?

The worst thing that can happen is that the entire project fails and next spring, behind my shiny new brick wall, I plant flowers.