Sorry! I tried putting in hyper links, but it didn't work. :(
You will have to HIGHLIGHT the link under the picture title, RIGHT CLICK your mouse, select COPY, and then PASTE the link into your address line.
Sorry again! :(
I hope you enjoy the pictures, and that it was worth the extra work to view them.
~ Amy :)

Samy,

Thats an AWESOME looking garden!! Hope mine turns out as lush as yours. What kind of support are you using for your tomatoes?

Nick

great crop of veggies, great crop of kids.

Thank you for the nice comments. :) :) :)
I trained/tied my tomatoes to bamboo poles and religiously plucked the suckers off. I grew mostly grape tomatoes, which the kids LOVED! It was such a treat for them to pick the maters off the vines and pop them into thier mouths.
Keep Smiling, Amy :)

Lovely garden AND children. Now that you have so many to help, I'd bet money hubby will be expanding that garden this season!

When we pick with children, we sing songs and have friendly competitions--who can fill up a bucket of green beans first, who finds the most cowpeas in a pod.....

What beautiful memories--you are a wonderful parent to teach your kids these things....

That's a fabulous garden!

Your success on first try should encourage others who are just starting.

What I like best is that you are starting the next generation of gardeners. Those kids will get a lifetime of benefit from what you are doing. Indoctrinate their friends and cousins too.

Congratulations on a great job.

Jim

Very well designed! It shows that a vegetable garden can be attractive, as well as productive. Plus, the beds are small enough for the children to reach everything. Did you put the beds in first and then put the pavers around them? I'm just wondering how deep the beds are, since they don't stick up as high as some raised beds I've seen.

Well done!

Bonnie

Here are the pictures:
* Welcome To My Garden Corner! {{gwi:34936}}

* Three of My Girls working in the Garden
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* Garden 23 days old
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* My little 'Informal' Knot Garden!
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* Our FIRST Zucchini!
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* My 'Sweet~peas' picking Peas!
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* I Love these tiny delicate pink, string (bush) beans, flowers! {{gwi:34945}}

* My Little Garden Helpers! A Bug Catcher, a Harvester, and a Water-er! *wink* {{gwi:34946}}

* Our Mini Pumkins & All of My Eight Kids! {{gwi:34947}}

Great photos of garden and kids! Hey, one more and you can start your own baseball team... Thanks for sharing with us.
Shot

Thank you granite, for posting my pictures for me. I wasn't sure how to do that. THANKS! :)

Thank you all again, for the super nice comments on the garden and my children.

mid_tn_mama, as a mommy, it always so wonderful to watch your family work together, play together, and learn together! I love your "friendly competitions" idea, I will have to remember that. Thank you. And yeah, we are expanding a little more. We are going to grow blackberries along the chainlink fence, grapes over the arbor, a bed full of strawberries, a box of potatoes, and trellis some "icebox size" watermelons and cantaloupe, 2 dwarf blueberris in a long pot, raspberry bushes in the landscape along the wooden fence, and more tomatoes in pots. Also, we plan on planting a few fruit trees in our backyard, were just undecided on which kind.

Bonnie, yes we did put the beds together and set the boxs in first, then laid fine gravel and pavers around them, to help support the boxes. So, the boxes go down quite a few inches.

Jim, my kids and some neighborhood children are so excited and looking forward to gardening this year. I was so tickled last year at what fun the kids had with the garden. We have lots of kids in the neighborhood, and the children loved coming over and help water, watch the things grow, find bugs and catch the bad ones, learn about pollination, and eat! There were so many kids who had never been introduced to many of the veggi's we grew, so it was satisfying to let these children discover and enjoy fresh vegetables. Plus, we had the little ones over to cook/bake, we made mini loafs of zucchuni bread (which they shared with their parents), and chocolate cupcakes with zucchuni! They really enjoyed that! :)

And Shot... My husband would love his own baseball team! But, I think eight is enough for us. *wink* hee hee hee...

THANK YOU ALL AGAIN!!! Gardening is Great! And its all about sharing!!! Sharing the fruits of our labor with family, friends, and neighbors. Sharing our photos, stories, and knowledge, here with our fellow gardeners at gradenweb. Thank you all! I've learned and been inspired by all of you! :)

HAPPY SPRING! HAPPY GARDENING!
Keep Smiling, Amy :)

Here is a link that might be useful: My Family Webpage

Wow!

That's a fantastic looking garden.

Do you have any more details on the beds? What size lumber did you use for the boxes?

Thank you chudak!
A few details on the garden beds.... The beds are 3ft. by 8ft. We cemented the posts in, used brackets to fasten the redwood boards, which are 2"x8". The long bed is 3ft by 16ft (for corn), and the small bed is 3ft. by 3ft (my informal knot garden). I hope this answers your question, if not let me know. My awesome husband bulit the garden area for me, so if there is something you still have any questions about let me know, and I'll ask my husband, then let you know. Thanks. :)

Beautiful garden and children! Thanks so much for sharing the pics :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Judy's Square Foot Garden

Amy, your pictures have inspired me! Your garden is as beautiful as it is functional. Your plans for expanding sound wonderful as well. Please post more pictures later so we can check out your additions. Here is a picture of mine as it looks today. Using yours as a model, I'd like to double mine in size and add walkways.

{{gwi:34948}}

A couple of questions (for Amy's husband, or anyone!)...

Can I use grass killer between the boxes to clear it for walkways while the veggies are growing?

How wide are the paths between your boxes?

How much space do I need for rhubarb?

Thank you,
Mary

@preciousamy,
Great pics. This is your first garden?! Amazing job. Do tell about how you improved/amended your soil so quickly.

@blancspons,
Although most grass killers target grass, I would not recommend using it near your vegetables. I know this is not the organic forum, but I'm sure a side of grass killing chems with your tomatoes won't be too appetizing. :) I would rake/dig up the area surrounding the boxes and level it before deciding on your path material (blocks or pea gravel). In terms of width, 18-24" should be ample room.

Oh wow, sorry to see you have such an infestation of children in your garden.

Children stealing vegetables from your garden can be a problem, even worse than squirrels sometimes, but luckily there are some controls.

You can buy pedocidal spray at garden stores, but it's cheaper to just make it at home, as it's just a mixture of broccoli and brussels sprouts.

If you want a more organic control, you can set up cage traps, but you have to remember to bait them with candy.

There are also a few things you can use to scare the children away from your garden. A scare-aunt can be very effective, but you have to make sure it looks like its arms are outstretched in search of cheeks to pinch. Also, a chalkboard with homework assignments posted can be very scary to the little critters.

You can also place ice cream somewhere away from your garden to lure the children away, or a stereo playing ice-cream truck songs.

There is one last method that some gardeners report as being extremely effective, and that is reminding the kids that they're little kids, they aren't even supposed to like vegetables.