My husband and I have been talking about a vegetable and herb garden for the longest time. When we were living in Las Vegas where my husband is from, we decided to start out with some tomato seeds. It’s difficult to grow anything in Las Vegas because of the extreme heat, but our little tomato plant did alright with lots of tender love and care. When we moved to Southern California our little baby flourished. After a lot of going back and forth we finally decided to start our vegetable garden. We’re no experts and we still have so much to learn but I hope this gives you some valuable information and maybe even some inspiration! I cook everyday with the vegetables and herbs we planted so I’m so excited to have them in our backyard! You’ll find my recipes along the way so stick around and enjoy!

This is what the space looked like before. We wanted to start small and get our feet wet first! This spot was perfect because it gets plenty of sunlight throughout the day.

And because I love my sweet husband and he did most of the hard stuff…

The first thing we did was clear all the rocks. Then we plowed the soil and removed weeds and debris. We found lots of worms which is a good sign!

We were both so excited about the white picket fence my husband made so that was the next thing we put up.

My husband took care of the irrigation system (of course). We already had one in place but we purchased some additional attachments to make sure the soil would be properly irrigated.

Next step was testing the soil to see what we could grow. You can buy these really cool kits at your local hardware store.

And the results…  

Now we were ready to plant everything! Basically the soil test told us our soil is alkaline. I’m pretty sure we still bought whatever our little hearts desired. It’s all an experiment and learning process for us anyways.

Some strawberries of course because I love to have a good Smoothie every now and then.

Some yummy and delicious basil because I eat my Spinach, Basil, & Artichoke Pesto Pasta and Couscous Breakfast Bowl almost every week!

Went a little overboard on the basil because I cook with it so much!

Swiss chard for my Green Goose Juice.

Fragrant chives to garnish my Chive & Dill Crepes and Smoked Salmon & Chive Sandwiches.

Flat leaf Italian parsley to garnish some Quick & Easy Chicken Noodle Soup for those cold rainy days.

Transplanted our tomato plant. How about a delicious salad? Check out my Tomato & Feta Spring Salad and Orzo with Mushrooms, Asparagus, & Cherry Tomatoes recipes.

Spinach seedlings after a week. Can’t wait to make my Spinach & Couscous Bites with these!

Kale seedlings after a week so I can make my Kapple Juice!

Lettuce seedlings after a week so I can make a salad and top it off with homemade Croutons!

Carrot seedlings after a week and a half because I need carrots for my famous Beet Juice and for my easy and delicious Vegetable Fried Rice.

Green bean seedlings after a week and a half because I can’t make Couscous & Green Beans without the green beans!

Let me sneak in another one of my husband working hard as usual.

So I present to you our little vegetable and herb garden…

I really hope you’ve enjoyed this post and I hope you’re able to start your very own vegetable and herb garden!