you know....in my "spare time"
veggie gardeners blog list
organic gardening blog list
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
diy cold frame
I actually have an old window and at least 1 brick o block that I have in mind to use with this...I jsut dont know the right place in my garden to put it...we'll see...
cold frame
another one here
cold frame
another one here
diy grow light
last year when I tried starting my own seedlings I noticed they were very very leggy....and I learned that was from lack of a good light source...apparently a sunny window sill just isnt enough....and I was APPALLED at the prices of grow lights...CRAZY! So I was excited when I came across this diy grow light set up...just the thing for my handy husband to work on one saturday...and he did! instead of it costing us more than $100 for a grow light stand PLUS bulb....it was more like 20-30 instead...not bad!
diy grow light
diy grow light
composting
a few sites about composting...
composting chart
winter composting
more winter composting
composting 101
solutions to 7 composting problems
composting chart
winter composting
more winter composting
composting 101
solutions to 7 composting problems
concerns for my 2012 garden
I'm a little concerned about how much time I'll be able to focus on my garden this summer because this is my first year to have TWO mobile little people in my life...in 2009 there was just one mobile little person who took AMAZING LONG NAPS which was when I would garden....in 2010 there was just one mobile little person, who still napped well...and a newborn, who wasnt a great napper...but still slept a good bit of the day....in 2011 I still had my good napping older son, and not so good napping, but also not quite mobile younger son (so if I gardened during the older ones naptime, at least I could plop the younger one down in the shade with some toys so I could get a little something done). This year my older one has given up napping....but still has "quiet time" in his room every day, which most of the time can correspond with my younger sons nap time....which rarely ever lasts more than an hour...maybe and hour and a a half if I am lucky. I thought MAYBE I could get away with some gardening while the little guys play outside on their playsets, but little brother is very brave and is determined to climb the big green climbing wall whether I am there with him or not, so I'm pretty sure I cant turn my back on him to weed the garden for very long...or there maybe stitches in our future.
I'm also a bit concerned about my mini csa with my mom. I am SO thankful that she has invested in my garden....its helped my garden to grow and my enjoyment and motivation to grow along with it! The only issue is that for real csas deliver once a week or so....but I live an hour and a half away from my mom....and with gas prices threatening to be at FIVE DOLLARS A GALLON by memorial day....there is just NO WAY I can get her veggies once a week. We are almost always in town once a month or so...and I guess I can try to meet her at a convenient half way point one other time a month....but I figure with gas prices that high, it will cost us close to $40 in gas round trip each time we drive to town. YIKES! I dont want to stiff her though....because while she was extremely excited about all the produce she got last year, and super encouraging, with 2 baby girls born in our gamily during the summer last year and her traveling to do her grandmotherly duties, she missed out on the bulk of the summer tomatoes (and honestly, what is the point of a summer garden/csa if you dont get tomatoes!) and other fresh produce....I dont want that to happen again...I want to keep my one customer happy! :) Last year I tried to soften the blow by saucing up a lot of the tomatoes and giving them along with quite a bit of pesto in lieu of fresh produce...but I know that was just not the same! hopefully this year will be better. I've also promised her a loaf of homemade sourdough bread each time I make a delivery...if possible...and I've mentioned sharing the whey from my homemade yogurt so she can water her hydrangeas and my step dad could use it for his grapevines....maybe that will help ease my conscience too.
I'm also a bit concerned about my mini csa with my mom. I am SO thankful that she has invested in my garden....its helped my garden to grow and my enjoyment and motivation to grow along with it! The only issue is that for real csas deliver once a week or so....but I live an hour and a half away from my mom....and with gas prices threatening to be at FIVE DOLLARS A GALLON by memorial day....there is just NO WAY I can get her veggies once a week. We are almost always in town once a month or so...and I guess I can try to meet her at a convenient half way point one other time a month....but I figure with gas prices that high, it will cost us close to $40 in gas round trip each time we drive to town. YIKES! I dont want to stiff her though....because while she was extremely excited about all the produce she got last year, and super encouraging, with 2 baby girls born in our gamily during the summer last year and her traveling to do her grandmotherly duties, she missed out on the bulk of the summer tomatoes (and honestly, what is the point of a summer garden/csa if you dont get tomatoes!) and other fresh produce....I dont want that to happen again...I want to keep my one customer happy! :) Last year I tried to soften the blow by saucing up a lot of the tomatoes and giving them along with quite a bit of pesto in lieu of fresh produce...but I know that was just not the same! hopefully this year will be better. I've also promised her a loaf of homemade sourdough bread each time I make a delivery...if possible...and I've mentioned sharing the whey from my homemade yogurt so she can water her hydrangeas and my step dad could use it for his grapevines....maybe that will help ease my conscience too.
grand plans for my 2012 garden.....
I had such great luck with my raised beds last year, that this year I have bought 2 more sets thanks to my mom and step dad investing in my garden again this year!!! yipee! I have big plans for those!
for my timing this year I found this cool looking "gardeners handbook"
http://www.amazon.com/Week---Week-Vegetable-Gardeners-Handbook/dp/1603426949/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330503912&sr=8-1
I found it at books a million and I;ve been wanting something like this for a while....turns out it got some good reviews on amazon, but not by many people who have actually used it...just who are excited about using it...reviews by people who have actually used it were very mixed...mainly that the authors gardening experience was limited to their climate in massachusetts....and their growing season is quite a bit shorter than other areas, like say, HERE! I had wondered about that too when they were calling the end of july "early fall" but I went through and tweaked the dates a little bit, so I hope that the timing will work out well....we'll see. I am mostly using it to tell me how far in advance to start seeds for my spring and fall gardens.
for spring
started in jiffy pellets:
brussells sprouts
kale
bok choi
lettuce
onions and leeks (new to me)
cabbage
I have planted mesclun and arugula outside in pots
I plan to start carrots, spinach, radishes, lettuce, chard, onions (white and green) mustard greens outside in raised beds within the next 2 weeks.
Since there was such an influx of compost to my raised beds this year due to my winter composting, I took some of my soil from the raised beds to be tested at the extension office....and it was such a nice dark rich brown color, they asked me if I was just testing potting soil....I hope that is a good sign that the soil is good. I just want to make sure that the ph isnt waaaay off and will fry my plants.
for summer
started in jiffy pellets
peppers
eggplant (also new to me)
I plan to start tomatoes within the next month or so
I also have seeds for bush beans, pole beans, lots of zuke, cuke and squash, and potatoes! Also mint, oregano, and stevia. I'll try to update these entries with specific variety names as soon as I can...just not now at 2:23am. :)
I've been doing some reasearch about intensive gardening methods such as succession planting (which seems like it takes a fair amount of experience to perfect....so I'm definitely learning by doing) and intercropping or interplanting. I'll share more about that research later.
I plan to post a diagram of my gardening plan, I just have to figure out how to get it from my pencil and paper sketch onto the blog....not sure if I have it in me to input it into the computer somehow...maybe scanning it?
for my timing this year I found this cool looking "gardeners handbook"
http://www.amazon.com/Week---Week-Vegetable-Gardeners-Handbook/dp/1603426949/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330503912&sr=8-1
I found it at books a million and I;ve been wanting something like this for a while....turns out it got some good reviews on amazon, but not by many people who have actually used it...just who are excited about using it...reviews by people who have actually used it were very mixed...mainly that the authors gardening experience was limited to their climate in massachusetts....and their growing season is quite a bit shorter than other areas, like say, HERE! I had wondered about that too when they were calling the end of july "early fall" but I went through and tweaked the dates a little bit, so I hope that the timing will work out well....we'll see. I am mostly using it to tell me how far in advance to start seeds for my spring and fall gardens. for spring
started in jiffy pellets:
brussells sprouts
kale
bok choi
lettuce
onions and leeks (new to me)
cabbage
I have planted mesclun and arugula outside in pots
I plan to start carrots, spinach, radishes, lettuce, chard, onions (white and green) mustard greens outside in raised beds within the next 2 weeks.
Since there was such an influx of compost to my raised beds this year due to my winter composting, I took some of my soil from the raised beds to be tested at the extension office....and it was such a nice dark rich brown color, they asked me if I was just testing potting soil....I hope that is a good sign that the soil is good. I just want to make sure that the ph isnt waaaay off and will fry my plants.
for summer
started in jiffy pellets
peppers
eggplant (also new to me)
I plan to start tomatoes within the next month or so
I also have seeds for bush beans, pole beans, lots of zuke, cuke and squash, and potatoes! Also mint, oregano, and stevia. I'll try to update these entries with specific variety names as soon as I can...just not now at 2:23am. :)
I've been doing some reasearch about intensive gardening methods such as succession planting (which seems like it takes a fair amount of experience to perfect....so I'm definitely learning by doing) and intercropping or interplanting. I'll share more about that research later.
I plan to post a diagram of my gardening plan, I just have to figure out how to get it from my pencil and paper sketch onto the blog....not sure if I have it in me to input it into the computer somehow...maybe scanning it?
lessons from my 2011 garden
thanks to my mom and step dad investing in my garden this year as a mini csa, this was my first year to venture into raised beds! woohoo! I found a GREAT deal on a raised bed kit at sams....greenland gardener, 3.5x7 bed kits made from composite lumber for less than $40! After some shopping around I found a local place that sells potting soil for a GREAT deal...so I bought 2 raised bed kits, a TON (well, not quite...but my back sure thought so) of soils....I ended up mixing potting soil, top soil, and mushroom compost to fill my beds....they worked GREAT!!
I used square foot gardening guidelines...kinda sorta....for the plant spacings.....probably should have followed them a bit more closely...but despite that, I was still pleased!
again this year I planted most of my summer veggies from seeds, but a lot of the fall stuff was from transplants
here is what I planted in 2011:
summer
tomatoes in raised beds (5), hanging baskets (4) and a few deck containers (2)
peppers mostly in raised beds (at least 10 plants, maybe more)
bush beans in raised beds
squash and zukes in raised beds
pole beans in the same place as last year
lettuce and mesclun, chard and spinach in pots
cukes in a side bed
fall
brussells sprouts where the pole beans vacated
cabbages in raised beds
chard in raised beds
radishes in raised beds
kale, bok choy, mustard greens, lettuce, mesclun in containers
lessons I learned:
1)peppers take FOREVER to grow into seedlings and even longer to produce....but once they do...whew! next time I grow serranos, I should only do 1 plant...because with 2 I was covered up with those little hot peppers!
2)I wonder if my overcrowding my peppers affected yield this summer...at least with my bell peppers. they just seemed to take forever and weren't all that impressive. I'm not willing to give up yet, because those pretty peppers are expensive in the store....but I need to tweak something....
3)5 bush tomato plants in a 3.5x3.5 square was just too much...next year I will just plan to do 3 per square
4)I am intimidated by indeterminate tomatoes....but 99% of the cool heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate...so I decided to try those in hanging baskets...something called an upsy downsy where I could plant in the top AND bottom of the pot...and I planted the same amount of plants that they called for...if not less...but yield was pathetic! I had semi good luck with the pot that had yellow pear tomatoes, but I never saw a mr stripey or big rainbow, and I think I only got 1 or 2 amana oranges that year. bummer. I want to try again...but with tweaking.
5)I did a tiny bit of "interplanting" this year with putting mesclun around the perimeter of my container tomato plants (may have done this in 2010 as well...cant remember) and that worked pretty well....
6)I was covered up with radishes from doing a whole 3.5 square bed with them....and I'm really not a radish fan....but I discovered a recipe for radish top soup that was interesting....probably wont do a whole bed of them next year, but interplant them instead.
7)I LOVED growing kale....now I just need to learn how to cook with it! :)
8)I purchased a "strawberry pot" this spring, and I think it is entirely possible that I planted those little strawberry bare root crowns upside down....so no berries this year...I am DYING to try strawberries sometime in a raised bed...not sure when I'll have the spare space....but the strawberry pot was a waste of money :(
9)this summer we had a hail storm that really affected my garden...especially my squash plants...you should have seen how sad those big beautiful leaves were when they were ripped to shreds ! As a result of that storm, we had to get our roof replaced, and as a result of that, we had some wooden pallets laying around. I took them and made a compost pile in one of the vacant squares of my raised bed....and I was a bit nervous doing this is OCTOBER when it was just starting to get nippy and frosty....because compost needs HEAT...but I decided to try anyway....and it worked GREAT! I felt very "green" by taking our kitchen veggie waste outside, putting our fallen leaves in there, even our shredded sunday paper and paper plates and dryer lint. cool, huh? I just dismantled it in mid february 2012, and although there was still a fair amount of stuff that hadnt yet decomposed....I am certain that a whole bunch of it did! probably thanks in part to the wierd warm winter we have had....barely any snow at all....so the stuff never really froze all the way through....but it was cool enough that the smell never got offensive and the bugs didnt seem to pay much attention at all...and boy you should have seen the size of those earthworms when I was dismantling it to transfer it to the new spot....they were MASSIVE! good sign! it was exciting to be able to spread all that nice dark brown goodness to the other beds!
not sure if I will do it that way again since I invested in one of those black plastic compost bins from sams and put it near the trashcan.....I'm a bit nervous how much I will like having a compost bin this summer when it is nice and hot and buggy.....we'll see
I used square foot gardening guidelines...kinda sorta....for the plant spacings.....probably should have followed them a bit more closely...but despite that, I was still pleased!
again this year I planted most of my summer veggies from seeds, but a lot of the fall stuff was from transplants
here is what I planted in 2011:
summer
tomatoes in raised beds (5), hanging baskets (4) and a few deck containers (2)
peppers mostly in raised beds (at least 10 plants, maybe more)
bush beans in raised beds
squash and zukes in raised beds
pole beans in the same place as last year
lettuce and mesclun, chard and spinach in pots
cukes in a side bed
fall
brussells sprouts where the pole beans vacated
cabbages in raised beds
chard in raised beds
radishes in raised beds
kale, bok choy, mustard greens, lettuce, mesclun in containers
lessons I learned:
1)peppers take FOREVER to grow into seedlings and even longer to produce....but once they do...whew! next time I grow serranos, I should only do 1 plant...because with 2 I was covered up with those little hot peppers!
2)I wonder if my overcrowding my peppers affected yield this summer...at least with my bell peppers. they just seemed to take forever and weren't all that impressive. I'm not willing to give up yet, because those pretty peppers are expensive in the store....but I need to tweak something....
3)5 bush tomato plants in a 3.5x3.5 square was just too much...next year I will just plan to do 3 per square
4)I am intimidated by indeterminate tomatoes....but 99% of the cool heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate...so I decided to try those in hanging baskets...something called an upsy downsy where I could plant in the top AND bottom of the pot...and I planted the same amount of plants that they called for...if not less...but yield was pathetic! I had semi good luck with the pot that had yellow pear tomatoes, but I never saw a mr stripey or big rainbow, and I think I only got 1 or 2 amana oranges that year. bummer. I want to try again...but with tweaking.
5)I did a tiny bit of "interplanting" this year with putting mesclun around the perimeter of my container tomato plants (may have done this in 2010 as well...cant remember) and that worked pretty well....
6)I was covered up with radishes from doing a whole 3.5 square bed with them....and I'm really not a radish fan....but I discovered a recipe for radish top soup that was interesting....probably wont do a whole bed of them next year, but interplant them instead.
7)I LOVED growing kale....now I just need to learn how to cook with it! :)
8)I purchased a "strawberry pot" this spring, and I think it is entirely possible that I planted those little strawberry bare root crowns upside down....so no berries this year...I am DYING to try strawberries sometime in a raised bed...not sure when I'll have the spare space....but the strawberry pot was a waste of money :(
9)this summer we had a hail storm that really affected my garden...especially my squash plants...you should have seen how sad those big beautiful leaves were when they were ripped to shreds ! As a result of that storm, we had to get our roof replaced, and as a result of that, we had some wooden pallets laying around. I took them and made a compost pile in one of the vacant squares of my raised bed....and I was a bit nervous doing this is OCTOBER when it was just starting to get nippy and frosty....because compost needs HEAT...but I decided to try anyway....and it worked GREAT! I felt very "green" by taking our kitchen veggie waste outside, putting our fallen leaves in there, even our shredded sunday paper and paper plates and dryer lint. cool, huh? I just dismantled it in mid february 2012, and although there was still a fair amount of stuff that hadnt yet decomposed....I am certain that a whole bunch of it did! probably thanks in part to the wierd warm winter we have had....barely any snow at all....so the stuff never really froze all the way through....but it was cool enough that the smell never got offensive and the bugs didnt seem to pay much attention at all...and boy you should have seen the size of those earthworms when I was dismantling it to transfer it to the new spot....they were MASSIVE! good sign! it was exciting to be able to spread all that nice dark brown goodness to the other beds!
not sure if I will do it that way again since I invested in one of those black plastic compost bins from sams and put it near the trashcan.....I'm a bit nervous how much I will like having a compost bin this summer when it is nice and hot and buggy.....we'll see
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
lessons from my 2010 garden
this was a very eventful summer. my second son was due the end of july, but I still REALLY wanted a garden, so I figured a container garden on my deck would be easier to manage than one in the ground...and maybe it would have been if I had actually stuck to that plan....but of course I didnt! I still had squash and zucchini and carrots and beans in the ground, and a LOT of lettuce too...eventually I had 20 heads of lettuce in my garden both in the ground and in containers!!!
Anyway, I stocked up on containers, and I also ventured into the world of starting from seed. I learned about the more compact varieties of plants, and I knew those would be better suited for my petite garden space and containers. So I started seeds in those little jiffy pellets...and I was pretty pleased with my results. I even managed to grow "bush" cucumbers in pots...which ended up having to trail down my deck...not very bush like at all.
When I said it was an eventful summer, I really wasnt kidding! My son was born 4 1/2 weeks early and spent 24 agonizing, stressful, faith building days in the nicu an hour and a half away. thankfully we were able to stay with my parents who lived about 10 minutes away from the hospital....but for those 24 days, I was away from my garden (my husband was able to come back home for a little while to work, and kept it watered....kinda). I had arranged for our sweet elderly neighbors to water the garden in the 4 or so days I was planning for us to be gone....and they kept an eye on things and watered as much as they could for the duration of our time in nashville, even mowed our lawn 2 or 3 times...such wonderful people....but it just wasnt the same.
I was pleased when I got home that most of my plants had survived pretty well....
that summer I had planted:
squash and zukes in the ground and in pots
tomatoes in pots, and eventually in the ground too
basil in pots
cukes in pots
lettuce and mesclun in pots and in the ground
pole beans in the ground
bush beans in pots and in the ground
peppers in pots
carrots in the ground and in pots
potatoes in a trashcan
here is what I learned:
1)tomatoes, squash, zukes, cukes, peppers, carrots just dont do well in pots....at least not that summer...and while there were extenuating circumstances that may have affected yield...I probably wont plant those again in pots...although I will probably try some "patio" tomatoes in pots again.....because I am a glutton for punishment.
2)I love basil, lettuce and mesclun in pots
3)bush beans were nice and easy to plant in pots...but yield was better when planted in the ground
pole beans were a pleasant surprise...I planted them near the deck and attached some trellis netting to the deck, so they grew up the netting and then up the rails of the deck...pretty cool!
4)I wasnt super impressed with my carrot yield, and I ended up taking a year off from carrots...but I'm thinking a shady location may have been to blame this summer...so I may try again this year.
5)I had read several places about trying potatoes in a trashcan....so I tried it....it seemed to work pretty well until all of a sudden the leaves just DIED! one day...out of the blue....or maybe because I had sprayed for weeds nearby and they may have been collateral damage....so my yield wasnt great...and it took a TON of potting soil....but it was really cool to dump out the trashcan and fish out all these cute little potatoes from the dirt...and oh my goodness....they were SO GOOD....tender and tasty....amazing.....I wasnt brave enough to try them in 2011....but I am gearing up to try again for 2012 with TWO trashcans....and something called a "potato bag" that only cost 6 or 7 dollars and the picture shows an abundance of potatoes...might be false advertising like those upsydownsy tomatoes thingys....but I'm willing to try since I found such a good price on potting soil....and I'll keep the weed killer far far away....maybe just maybe I'll manage to grow some more yummy potatoes that dont cost over a dollar a piece in the end!!!
Anyway, I stocked up on containers, and I also ventured into the world of starting from seed. I learned about the more compact varieties of plants, and I knew those would be better suited for my petite garden space and containers. So I started seeds in those little jiffy pellets...and I was pretty pleased with my results. I even managed to grow "bush" cucumbers in pots...which ended up having to trail down my deck...not very bush like at all.
When I said it was an eventful summer, I really wasnt kidding! My son was born 4 1/2 weeks early and spent 24 agonizing, stressful, faith building days in the nicu an hour and a half away. thankfully we were able to stay with my parents who lived about 10 minutes away from the hospital....but for those 24 days, I was away from my garden (my husband was able to come back home for a little while to work, and kept it watered....kinda). I had arranged for our sweet elderly neighbors to water the garden in the 4 or so days I was planning for us to be gone....and they kept an eye on things and watered as much as they could for the duration of our time in nashville, even mowed our lawn 2 or 3 times...such wonderful people....but it just wasnt the same.
I was pleased when I got home that most of my plants had survived pretty well....
that summer I had planted:
squash and zukes in the ground and in pots
tomatoes in pots, and eventually in the ground too
basil in pots
cukes in pots
lettuce and mesclun in pots and in the ground
pole beans in the ground
bush beans in pots and in the ground
peppers in pots
carrots in the ground and in pots
potatoes in a trashcan
here is what I learned:
1)tomatoes, squash, zukes, cukes, peppers, carrots just dont do well in pots....at least not that summer...and while there were extenuating circumstances that may have affected yield...I probably wont plant those again in pots...although I will probably try some "patio" tomatoes in pots again.....because I am a glutton for punishment.
2)I love basil, lettuce and mesclun in pots
3)bush beans were nice and easy to plant in pots...but yield was better when planted in the ground
pole beans were a pleasant surprise...I planted them near the deck and attached some trellis netting to the deck, so they grew up the netting and then up the rails of the deck...pretty cool!
4)I wasnt super impressed with my carrot yield, and I ended up taking a year off from carrots...but I'm thinking a shady location may have been to blame this summer...so I may try again this year.
5)I had read several places about trying potatoes in a trashcan....so I tried it....it seemed to work pretty well until all of a sudden the leaves just DIED! one day...out of the blue....or maybe because I had sprayed for weeds nearby and they may have been collateral damage....so my yield wasnt great...and it took a TON of potting soil....but it was really cool to dump out the trashcan and fish out all these cute little potatoes from the dirt...and oh my goodness....they were SO GOOD....tender and tasty....amazing.....I wasnt brave enough to try them in 2011....but I am gearing up to try again for 2012 with TWO trashcans....and something called a "potato bag" that only cost 6 or 7 dollars and the picture shows an abundance of potatoes...might be false advertising like those upsydownsy tomatoes thingys....but I'm willing to try since I found such a good price on potting soil....and I'll keep the weed killer far far away....maybe just maybe I'll manage to grow some more yummy potatoes that dont cost over a dollar a piece in the end!!!
lessons from my 2009 garden
1)even though the seedlings are itty bitty....they really WILL grow big! very big!
2)dont plant more seedlings than you need....the cucumbers came in a pack of 9, and I just couldnt BEAR to waste some of those seedlings, so I planted them ALL in various spots around the garden, and I was positively covered up with cucumbers that year....they took over the planet (and they were delicious...I learned that homegrown cukes are ALMOST as tasty as homegrown tomatoes....who knew cukes actually had FLAVOR!) I deduced that it would have been a WHOLE lot easier to toss a cuke seedling or 2 rather than storing and eventually tossing the bushels of cucumbers that took over our garden.
3)melon vines and cuke vines NEED ROOM...lots of it. I kinda already knew that...but foolishly I thought I could train these vines to grow in the direction of my narrow beds...nope....not a chance, they grew out into the yard no matter how hard I trained them, so my sweet hubby mowed around them....it was a jungle out there....and stayed so damp that almost all of the melons ended up rotting on the vine anyway...bad idea....probably not going there again anytime soon.
4)when growing herbs, it's in my best interest to grow ones that only use a few leaves when used in cooking....most of the time I use cilantro, I use a whole bunch (we love fresh salsa and cilantro in general) so it was a big demoralizing to spend all summer growing this beautiful plant, only to use it all in 1 maybe 2 dishes. Basil on the other hand, I grow a lot....I love the flavor....and it freezes well both as is, and as pesto...YUM!
5)lettuce grown in the ground gets DIRTY! I did a bit of a fall garden and the lettuce I put in the ground was very tasty, and super convenient to access....but took FOREVER to clean from all the splashback. I learned a)to plant them in containers, thus keeping them at least a little bit cleaner and b)to pick and wash well ahead of time, because it just takes too long right before a meal. I also learned how tasty buttercrunch and mesclun lettuces can be! Much tastier than iceberg, and much more cost effective than those bagged fancy schmancy lettuces in the store! definitely a keeper!
2)dont plant more seedlings than you need....the cucumbers came in a pack of 9, and I just couldnt BEAR to waste some of those seedlings, so I planted them ALL in various spots around the garden, and I was positively covered up with cucumbers that year....they took over the planet (and they were delicious...I learned that homegrown cukes are ALMOST as tasty as homegrown tomatoes....who knew cukes actually had FLAVOR!) I deduced that it would have been a WHOLE lot easier to toss a cuke seedling or 2 rather than storing and eventually tossing the bushels of cucumbers that took over our garden.
3)melon vines and cuke vines NEED ROOM...lots of it. I kinda already knew that...but foolishly I thought I could train these vines to grow in the direction of my narrow beds...nope....not a chance, they grew out into the yard no matter how hard I trained them, so my sweet hubby mowed around them....it was a jungle out there....and stayed so damp that almost all of the melons ended up rotting on the vine anyway...bad idea....probably not going there again anytime soon.
4)when growing herbs, it's in my best interest to grow ones that only use a few leaves when used in cooking....most of the time I use cilantro, I use a whole bunch (we love fresh salsa and cilantro in general) so it was a big demoralizing to spend all summer growing this beautiful plant, only to use it all in 1 maybe 2 dishes. Basil on the other hand, I grow a lot....I love the flavor....and it freezes well both as is, and as pesto...YUM!
5)lettuce grown in the ground gets DIRTY! I did a bit of a fall garden and the lettuce I put in the ground was very tasty, and super convenient to access....but took FOREVER to clean from all the splashback. I learned a)to plant them in containers, thus keeping them at least a little bit cleaner and b)to pick and wash well ahead of time, because it just takes too long right before a meal. I also learned how tasty buttercrunch and mesclun lettuces can be! Much tastier than iceberg, and much more cost effective than those bagged fancy schmancy lettuces in the store! definitely a keeper!
my gardening progression
I used to joke that plants died in my very presence! Even fake ones would give up the ghost! I mean, I actually managed to kill an ALOE PLANT....impossible, right? That's what everyone told me....but in college, I did! A few years later, my sweet in-laws gave me a large pot of some beautiful succulents....yep....killed those too...so sad. I think a good part of my issue was with over or under watering houseplants....kinda still is....
Fast forward 5 years or so to 2009, I am a stay at home mom of an 18 month old, and while I adore my job of keeping house and raising an amazing little boy, I still felt the need to LEARN something new...plus we had just moved into a new house, and for the first time I had a YARD, so I decided to take a risk. At our previous rental home, some sweet neighbors planted several tomato plants, but hated to eat tomatoes, so they were happy to share their yummy homegrown goodness, and smelling those fresh from the vine tomatoes reminded me of childhood memories of a small vegetable plot in my parents backyard....and everyone knows that homegrown tomatoes taste no less than 1000x better than store bought tomatoes...plus this neighbor basically did NOTHING to his plants...just bought them, planted them, and voila, they grew. SURELY I could do that....right? I mean, God would take care of at least SOME of the watering, right???
So a few months after moving into our new house, I scope out a few vacant spots in the yard, then I venture out to Lowes and start picking out plants. I have no idea how much money I spent that summer, but after 5 tomato plants (stuck in a 3x3 bed) and about 12 peppers (in another 3x3 bed), NINE cucumber plants (they took over the world!!) a few basil and cilantro plants, some melon and squash vines planted in some ridiculous places, and lots of garden soil, potting soil, and several tools etc....I had a pretty decent beginners garden. I was a nervous wreck that I would waste all our money on this venture, but I actually LOVED it! I made several mistakes and learned some valuable lessons about how much room these itty bitty seedlings would eventually need, and I've been vegetable gardening ever since! I've not done much at all with flower gardening, because honestly, if I'm going to sink this much time and energy and money into an endeavor, I'd better get SOMETHING out of it!
More later about lessons learned from my gardens so far
Fast forward 5 years or so to 2009, I am a stay at home mom of an 18 month old, and while I adore my job of keeping house and raising an amazing little boy, I still felt the need to LEARN something new...plus we had just moved into a new house, and for the first time I had a YARD, so I decided to take a risk. At our previous rental home, some sweet neighbors planted several tomato plants, but hated to eat tomatoes, so they were happy to share their yummy homegrown goodness, and smelling those fresh from the vine tomatoes reminded me of childhood memories of a small vegetable plot in my parents backyard....and everyone knows that homegrown tomatoes taste no less than 1000x better than store bought tomatoes...plus this neighbor basically did NOTHING to his plants...just bought them, planted them, and voila, they grew. SURELY I could do that....right? I mean, God would take care of at least SOME of the watering, right???
So a few months after moving into our new house, I scope out a few vacant spots in the yard, then I venture out to Lowes and start picking out plants. I have no idea how much money I spent that summer, but after 5 tomato plants (stuck in a 3x3 bed) and about 12 peppers (in another 3x3 bed), NINE cucumber plants (they took over the world!!) a few basil and cilantro plants, some melon and squash vines planted in some ridiculous places, and lots of garden soil, potting soil, and several tools etc....I had a pretty decent beginners garden. I was a nervous wreck that I would waste all our money on this venture, but I actually LOVED it! I made several mistakes and learned some valuable lessons about how much room these itty bitty seedlings would eventually need, and I've been vegetable gardening ever since! I've not done much at all with flower gardening, because honestly, if I'm going to sink this much time and energy and money into an endeavor, I'd better get SOMETHING out of it!
More later about lessons learned from my gardens so far
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