When I was a kid, my father had a vegetable garden in our backyard.

Not one to ever do anything halfway, my father’s garden wasn’t a small plot tucked in the corner of our yard. Instead, it was a mini-plantation which took up most of our backyard, and with all the planning, planting, harvesting and clean up, kept him occupied for months on end. Ever the engineer, he had even constructed an ingenious system for starting seeds in our basement which involved metal shelving and grow lights on a pulleys.

While I complained bitterly whenever my dad dragged us into his gardening activities, I (secretly) loved his garden. I may not have been a fan of the brussels sprouts (seriously, ick!), I enjoyed sneaking snap peas, strawberries and tomatoes. And, speaking of tomatoes, there were so many that each year we squished them in a handcrank tomato squisher (I have no idea what it’s actually called) to be made into gallons of homemade tomato sauce.

It’s those memories of snacking on veggies from our backyard, and our recent trip to the Natick Community Farm, that inspired me to start our own backyard vegetable garden.

On March 8th the kids and I filled a tray of soil with seeds which would, hopefully, yield a small crop of cucumber, tomato, zucchini and peas. Less than two weeks later the tray was overflowing with seedlings, but with the chance of snow still being high (hey, I live in New England), the kids and I spent Saturday morning transplanting the seeds into bigger pots.

As the kids and I talked about the roots, and dug into the dirt, I knew that even if we didn’t get one veggie, our soon-to-be-farm is already a success.