Spring Project

My first order of business this Spring will be to transform my messy, not-often-used vegetable garden, into a user-friendly space. Here's a picture of the space I'm working with:

As you can see, I have a big mess to clean up first! Then, I plan on putting a path of wood chips or rocks next to the fences on the left & back, and between the garden & the bushes on the right. That way I can walk around the garden & my dogs can too. Finally, I am going to build a raised bed in the middle of this space, hopefully making it more difficult for the bunnies & ground hogs to get to my veggies & to keep my dogs out, and...oh, yeah...it's better for my back! Right now, it's looking like I'll have a 6' x 8' garden, but the size may change once I start working with the space.

There is a great video for making a raised bed on Lowes' website: http://www.lowes.com/cd_null_94400869_?ytID=vBKcoezxqkU

I have a few obstacles to overcome with this project - #1 is that I really want to get started now, but it's too cold...STILL! Grrr. #2 is financial - I have to save up a bit for my supplies. I know this is going to be a bit of an investment, because I need to buy the wood, dirt, weed fabric & wood chips, but I am hoping that it will pay off in the long run. #3 is that I really want to get my family on board with this garden. As much as I sometimes want it to be "MY" garden, I really want the garden to be a place where our family works together & grows more than just vegetables - I want us to grow stronger bonds w/one another as we work together, side-by-side. My husband is in a reading group & he had me read a chapter of the book they're reading now called 'Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight' by Norman Wirzba. In it, the author mentions the importance of working together along with the lessons learned about the goodness of God and the practices of patience, cooperation, and interdependence. I need more of all of that!

So that's my plan. I'll be posting on my progress as I go. Which veggies do you think I should start with? I'm thinking tomatoes, green peppers, beans & spinich. Since I am going "greener", I will be trying to avoid using chemical pesticides on my plants - any ideas on how to keep bugs away? Thanks for reading!