With a child on the way and a 3-year-old in tow, getting down and playing with seedlings in the mud was more than just a little bit challenging.

She decided that this year - now that she's able - she'd produce a bountiful harvest.

Early this spring she ventured to a garden center open house, determined to get a good head start on her plan with a few little tomato plants.

She left with oodles of seed packets, courtesy of Plant a Row for the Hungry and Ball Horticultural.

"My eyes were bigger than my garden," she now jokes. And it didn't take long to realize "I won't have room for all these."

Instead of one big garden packed full with vegetables, Barlow's working on creatively fitting plants into her existing vegetable bed and tucking them in among her flowers.

Radishes come and go so quickly they're perfect in the flower beds. They don't take up a lot of room, so they can be tucked in wherever there's a vacancy, the Lake Zurich gardener said.

Spinach gets the prime real estate, right next to the prized tomato plants, but she's unfortunately discovering the concept of survival of the fittest, or, at least, squatters' rights.

The neighborhood bunny is partial to leafy greens.

"I had five spinach plants and one day I went out there and I had one!" she said.

Barlow's learning she doesn't need 40 acres to participate in the Plant a Row for the Hungry program. All it requires is a willingness to help people in need.

The national program, sponsored locally by the Daily Herald, encourages gardeners to plant a little extra and take the surplus to area food pantries and soup kitchens. This year, our goal is to collect 40,000 pounds at drop-off sites across five suburban counties.

Barlow's already well on her way to doing her part - she's already dropped off some of her extra bush beans along with those abundant radishes.

Perhaps with help from her 4-year-old son, Nathan, she'll even get another round of spinach growing! He tosses all his extra night crawlers into the vegetable garden after fishing expeditions with Dad, enriching the soil for the next planting session.