Trying our luck at growing our own

I've started a few seeds of each plant in pots.
They are lined up on the back porch in case of rain or wind. 

We know we grow beautiful babies- just look at Beni!  But neither Joel nor I have ever had much luck growing anything else.  Our indoor plants have mostly died fairly quick deaths, and the only time I tried to garden outdoors was in Angola in pots, and that failed too.  But, we're giving it another go here in Laos!  Wish us luck!   

I picked up some seeds at the market yesterday.  I got cherry tomatoes, bok choy, cilantro, sweet peas, lettuce (which I had to buy cause it's called Grand Rapids lettuce!), and basil. I really want to grow my own spinach, but, I couldn't find any spinach seeds. I may have to try to bring them in at some point.  

The two beds we dug up today. 

This whole digging up garden beds is HARD WORK.  I already can barely sit at the computer tonight- my fingers don't want to type anymore, because holy heck...my arms are like jello!  I dug the outer edges of both beds, and then Joel took up the top layer in the middles.  I broke one shovel along the way.  But, in my own defense, the shovels we bought today came with BAMBOO handles...no solid wood or metal, oh no.  Bamboo!  So as I was trying to push down on the handle to push dirt up, the handle just cracked down the middle.  Grr.  Funny how you find out some little things that are obviously hard to come by here by not being able to get them... like a solid wood handle for a shovel, a rake and a back hoe.

Little helper wanted to be in on all the action- here you can see she's using
the screwdriver to help drive the stake of the fence into the ground.  

We were happy to see such dark rich soil as we started digging though.  I suppose our spot right on the river makes a difference, but the soil is very moist too.  Also, absolutely EXPLODING with worms.  I didn't really like coming across them, but there were so many, I kind of got over it.  Plus, worms like to live in good soil right, so it's a good sign that they are here.  So I am going to learn to love worms.

They just look like graves right now, don't they?  But I hope not for long! 

So we waited until Joel knew for sure that Essendon was losing the AFL match today, and then headed out to the nursery, followed by several road-side tool/building/hardware stores to find everything else we needed.  By the time we got home, it was already 2:30.  I had to put Beni down, and so by the time we both got to work it was 3.  We busted our butts until 6, and then we were all getting hungry, we were all incredibly stinky and the mozzies were coming out.  So we packed it in.  But, we managed to get one bed seeded, and Joel built two sides of the chicken fence.  No, we don't have our own chickens (though it is also a thought we're considering...) but there are some chickens that come into our yard from the river's edge and spend most of their days here.  If I see them out pecking out my seeds or worms in the morning, I'll be screaming at them!  So yeah, that is why we're building a fence (just with chicken wire) around the garden.

Joel sawing the ends off the wood to make the stakes...Beni using
 the screwdriver to imitate the motion. 

Both Joel and I have done a little bit of research here and there about this whole gardening business.  I started collecting egg shells, coffee grounds and veggie peels for compost.  Joel researched raised beds, and then we decided we didn't need that.  Joel also talked to his brother, who said something along the lines of, "Just stick some seeds in the ground, anything grows here!"  So, let's hope he's kind of right.  Cause really, we don't know nothing about nothing...but I think we're doing fairly well so far. :)  I'll keep you updated!

I know gardening can be very different depending on where you are... but, anyone out there have advice for us???