This weekend, I crouched for several hours in the dirt. Pulling up weeds and pruning climber, I slowly brought my vegetable garden back from the brink of death – or the scene of some sort of jungle horror movie. Oh, you can’t imagine it was that bad. Well, here’s the ugly truth. It was bad, people. Really, really bad. Let’s call this the before photo.

To give you an idea of how much I pulled out and chopped, I offer up this picture. The tall green plants along the edge of the bed are mint. If you are ever thinking of growing herbs, but don’t have much of a green thumb, try mint first. The stuff is impossible kill, smells delicious and is a great addition to meals and drinks. That being said, be smarter than I was and plant yours in a pot. As you can see, the stuff takes over. In fact, if you ever need mint, just ask me. I have more than enough to go around.

After clearing everything out, I was exhausted, so I enlisted the help of my favorite gardener. Our soil is very clay like, so Keegan churned it up using this handy thingamabob.

After that I handed him the plants, mostly following the diagram I shared earlier. I picked up a second pepper plant, because I thought I would have room. I’m really glad I did.

If you decide to plant squash of any kind in your garden, leave lots of room. It spreads out like a vine or creeper, while peppers and basil grow vertically, taking up less space.

 Sweaty and swollen, I left him alone to dig the holes and plant the vegetables. For those of you who’ve never gardened, here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Provide ample space for each plant to grow.

2. Dig holes that are deep enough to accommodate the roots of the item you’re trying to plant.

3. Squish the container the plant came in to pull out the plant and its entire root system. Then, gently break apart the compacted roots before placing the entire thing in the hole you made.

4. Use the potting soil from the container, along with the existing dirt from your garden or pot to fill in the hole. Press lightly around the edges until the whole thing looks nearly seamless.

5. Last, but not least, give it a nice soak. In our case, I just waited for rain.

If you’d like more information, here’s a post I did awhile ago on potting plants.

Here’s a photo of the final product nice and hydrated from a long day of thunderstorms on Sunday.

I’ll keep you posted on how many vegetables we actually get this year. Cross your fingers.