My (hopefully) Green Thumb

I love, love, love my little garden.  It is a raised bed garden, just 4’ by 4’, and I used the square foot gardening method to plant.

Planting Day 5/8/2014

I am a total novice and am learning as I go along but I have to say I am getting really excited at the prospect of being able to successfully grow, and then eat, any of it. It hasn’t even been two weeks but I am seeing signs of life as I have a few baby tomatoes and peppers forming. 

 

One week later- 5/15/2014

 

When I bought the plants from the nursery (I didn’t start any of these from seeds) I asked the woman working whether or not I should stake them as I planted. She told me not to worry about it right away but after only a week a few of my pepper plants had doubled in size so this weekend I went out and got some wooden stakes and some tomato cages. I couldn’t hold off any longer.

*On a side note, after reading up on what plants needed to be staked most gardeners seemed to recommend staking when you plant so as to not damage any roots doing so later. Duly noted for next time. Hopefully I didn’t maim anything too badly.

Anywho, on this go around we planted onions, basil, Japanese eggplant, cucumbers (one of which I think is dead- it was pretty jacked up when I planted it), peppers, tomatoes, cantaloupe and watermelon. Sometime in July we are going to build a second raised bed and come August plant our fall crops; beets, carrots, lettuce, Swiss chard, and peas. With these vegetables I am going to direct seed, instead of buying germinated plants, as all of these crops do well through direct seeding- from what I’ve read.

And if our first garden is completely harvested by September we will plant some broccoli and brussel sprouts in that one.

Another thing gardening related that I am really excited about is composting. We just got a pretty decent sized (37 gallon) compost bin. Well, decent sized for us and our soon to be two small beds. I am really looking forward to have some of my own compost ready to be used on the next go around. Not only will it save me money (I bought a TON of mushroom compost for my current garden) but it is also a great way to ‘reuse’ the plethora of food scraps I would typically throw out. We already have a nice base of yard clippings and food scraps to start with so I am pretty excited.

This garden brings me so much joy already that I can’t imagine what it will be like when I am actually harvesting and preparing my own organic fruits and veggies. I think it is going to be pretty dang awesome.

Do you garden? Any gardening tips or tricks you’d like to share?

Love and hugs,

Dacia

xoxoxox