Hi there! Today I’m sharing about my experiences with gardening 🙂 This is our 3rd year for planting a garden and every single year we have decided to go bigger & bigger! I figure if I keep making a bigger garden eventually we’ll actually have to live on a farm, HA I’d like some chickens and a couple goats too please!
Here is a look at our garden from 2016, it was about an 8×8 foot plot and I think we had potatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, and a maybe carrots.
And a look at our 2017 Garden, we tripled the size and added cucumbers, squash, zuchinni, spinach, and some herbs. We also tried out adding some organic matter/compost/manure to the soil last year and I think that may have aided in the crazy growth of our garden lol! Things were slightly out of control and I loved every minute of it 🙂
Now to our 2018 garden plot, I think it had to of grown to be 5 times the size as last year?!?! I’ve only got our potatoes started in here so far. Everything else was either started indoors a couple months ago or will be directly sowed when I transplant the indoor stuff outside. I am thinking I’ll start working on getting everything in the ground outside after this weekend. Typically after Memorial Day the fear of frost over night is no more.
Our lineup this year includes: 2 types of potatoes, squash, zucchini, peppers, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, green beans, cucumber, brussel sprouts, purple carrots, stripe tomatoes, and chard. As well as various flowers. I buy all my seeds from High Mowing Organic, when I decided 3 years ago that I wanted to plant a garden from seed I did quite a bit of research and landed on High Mowing. I’ve been really happy every single year with my crops & harvests so I’ve stuck with them. For my birthday last year my bestie also gifted me a veggie garden seed set so I’m excitedly growing those this year too!
I choose to grow everything from seed because I just find a lot of joy in the process & accomplishment as I reap the rewards. That is not to say that I don’t have things fail though, some things don’t take off well or don’t produce but THAT’S OKAY!
For the most part I really just try to follow to guidelines that are on the back of my seed packets as far as when to start indoors, which to just directly sow, when to transplant, etc. It also provides spacing & depth measurements – which if I’m honest I just eyeball and am probably not very accurate.
I find that I need to check on my plants, especially the ones that I start indoors, every single day. I look to see that they are damp/have water and I try to be careful not to over water too. When most plants are first sprouting I find that sometimes they can get too much sun too – so I leave mine indoors where there is lots of bright light but very little direct sunlight.
I try to keep it all fun so that I continue to enjoy it! If I lose a plant or something doesn’t take I just choose to focus on what IS working! My favorite part of my day is watering my garden & flowers & just checking in on the growth, knowing that they grew in part because of me 🙂 Do you have a garden? What are you growing?
Love this and I have to say your garden is very impressive. The last couple of years my garden has really struggled- do you have any tips? Our backyard, where it is, does not get a lot of sunlight and I am looking for some advice! 🙂
AH, shady gardening can be tricky until you understand a couple things: 1. How many hours of sun does your garden get? and 2. Choosing plants that are suited for shade & fewer hours of sunlight.
Typically herbs do really well with less than 6 hours of sun (basil, chives, mint, parslet, cilantro). Other veggies that should do well are lettuce, spinach, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes, onions, peas, or beans.
Don’t expect peppers, tomatoes, squash, melons, or cucumbers to do well with little sun. And also be aware that your plants may take longer to mature & fruit, you may need to water less in shade too.
Last I would say if you can paint anything nearby white, like fencing, or even get white pavers/rocks on the ground around your garden this will help sunlight bounce off & provide just a little more for your garden! Happy planting Holly 🙂
Your gardens look amazing! Last year was our first garden in many years – thank you CA drought. The tomatoes and zucchini did well, the eggplants did not. The arugula went completely bonkers – still is, all year round! The last few years we put the herbs in smaller pots and kept them in the front yard, under the part sun/part shade of a huge jade plant. It was unintentional and they grew beautifully! I think this weekend is planting weekend.
Do you compost? We have 2 types of compost bins – outdoor, and then the indoor “worm factory”. The indoor one produces “worm juice” as a byproduct, which is a fantastic fertilizer. I have to dilute it 10 parts water to 1 part “worm juice” and I put in on all my plants. The dying begonias came back to life so fast and strong, I thought my hubby surprised me with new plants!
Love to see more pics of your garden as it develops!
Love that you had a good garden last year too & yes, herbs do thrive with a little bit of shade! 🙂
I do not compost…yet. I would like to but definitely need to look into it more and learn more about it. The benefits seem impressive!!
I’ll be sure to continue to share my garden progress this summer. Thanks for sharing your tips Laurie! 🙂