April 7, 2015

April Challenge: Begin a Garden

I do not have a green thumb.  I don't even have a green thumbnail because I bite my nails and I've recently accepted this and won't be painting them in the immediate future anyway...mostly because I'll be digging in this garden and messing up my cuticles.

Scott is the gardener.  This is last summer's garden.


That is before it really started producing vegetables, but his careful planning and plotting was evident.  In the middle of gutting the living room last June, he suddenly came home from Lowe's with 40 bags of top soil and those railroad tie things.  He dug up the yard and put in a foundation of soil and sectioned off these raised beds.  He installed a sprinkler system.  He meticulously planted seeds he had germinated in little trays in the unicorn room, back when it was still the unicorn room.  He tended to that garden every single evening, the second he got home from work.

He left instructions with me, on how to harvest stuff, water stuff, etc, when he had to leave for days or weeks for trainings.  And, before he'd even come in the house when he got home from those trips...he'd check the garden.

Here's the potato barrel that didn't really produce a lot of potatoes, but he had fun with it anyway.



This year, if I want a garden, I have to make the garden myself.  I've never done this.  This is brand new territory. My dad loves his garden.  My grandparents always had huge gardens too.  I...well, I planted some flowers one year in Alaska and they were pretty fabulous.  That was the only year flowers ever worked out for me though.

This is what our garden looked like a few weeks ago.


I know. It's going to be a long summer.

Last week, I started cleaning it out.  Now it looks like this.


The next step is to add a few bags of Miracle-Gro top soil and then put the fencing back into place. Then I'll probably put in some tomatoes, peas, zucchini, and peppers.  Any suggestions on vegetables?  We tried corn last year and it didn't work.

Oh, and the sprinkler system is disconnected, so I have to figure out how engineer that or actually water it with just the hose.  Effort and all.

Hopefully things will be planted by the end of the month.  If not, I'll have to follow up in May, but my intention is to begin consciously planning this out in April.

Also, I have some pots for flowers.  Try, try again.

Do you (attempt to) garden?  Any tips?

8 comments:

  1. I would love to have a garden, I'm unsure how it would do here.

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  2. I'm good with flowers in the ground. We have no space for a veggie garden. In the future I'll attempt it for sure. That's one of the things we want in our next house.

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  3. Look at you go!!! You're putting in such effort! Proud of you!

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  4. Your garden is looking great! I love the look of fresh dirt, ready to have something new planted in it. Someday I will have a garden again!!!!

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  5. I never keep plants alive, but my husband has started a hanging garden. We have strawberries and beans growing right now.

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  6. I started a garden here. Got a plot on base and have been working it out. I have no idea what I'm doing, and things will probably die...

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  7. Looks good! I like the IDEA of gardening but the last few years I've tried it, I never realized just how much work went into it and then I didn't like it so much lol ...however, fresh produce is always a fabulous thing! Have fun finding your green thumb!

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  8. Good luck! I know less than zero about gardening.. it's one of those things that I have thought 'I should do that' but then I don't.

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