It's Victory Garden Blitz Week, which means Victory Garden Initiative is installing gardens for those who ordered them. It's a great program that allows many people in the city to get an urban garden installed for a low price – or for free, if they applied in time and qualified for one.

According to volunteer Krista Lanphier, between 250-300 gardens will get installed this week, the majority of them on Saturday.

I have shared garden space with neighbors before, but never had my own. Hence, the thought of my own vegetable garden, even only one 4-foot-by-8-foot bed, was a little intimidating.

However, because I ordered a victory garden, I was matched with a "garden mentor" who actually came to my house, provided information about planting / gardening and helped me come up with a plan for my garden. I now have a "map" of my garden drawn out, and I know when to plant what, and I feel much less intimidated by it.

I can't say enough great things about this program.

Tuesday, which also happened to be my birthday, three volunteers – Lanphier, along with Lindsey Steinhardt and Katie Nauth – came to my house via truck around noon to build my garden in my sunny front yard. I let my kids stay home from school to witness this and to plant with me after it was built.

First, they built the raised bed with pieces of wood and then filled the box with wheelbarrows of local, organic, Purple Cow soil. The process only took about an hour. During this time, we had food ordered from Hi-Hat Garage via the Flavor Cycle service so we ate and watched the ladies create the bed.

"I'm from a small town, and I am really getting a feel for the community from being a part of this program," says Steinhardt, a marketing intern for VGI. "I love that we're integrating agriculture in urban settings."

After the building team left, we proceeded to plant tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and onions. We're starting out small scale. We then built a fence to completely enclose the garden because of our rogue squirrel population. I also planted marigolds in pots to put around the perimeter after hearing squirrels don't like the smell of them.

This weekend we painted our rain barrel, but we still have to hook it up. We also included some recent paintings into our garden space. The front yard went from super boring to quite a vibrant display.

I just hope we can grow something. I guess I'm still a little uncertain. It has been a few years since I've gardened. Do green thumbs get rusty?