Let me start with some history.
Last year, my best friend, Susan and I started a garden in my backyard. (It provided plenty of space and sun). I had always talked about gardening and Susan and I decided this was the year to just go for it.
The garden ended up being an awesome place of rest and relaxation for both of us. We both had had an incredibly stressful spring and summer and in the garden we could just think, talk, and get out some much needed aggression (on those weeds). We spend hours out there in the beginning; tilling, planting, weeding, laying newspaper and grass, and then things began to taper off as the plants grew and the produce began to grow.
We always wanted to write details of what we learned last year but never got around to it - so here are some basic overviews:
1) broccoli needs to be planted early and it doesn't look like store bought broccoli. It can "bolt" and turn into yellow flowers.
2) strawberries planted from seed probably won't come up. :(
3) You'll get ALOT of zuccini and squash, no need to plant the whole seed packet.
4) Plant the peas earlier and you'll get a longer crop, the heat really zaps them.
5) you'll need more green beans.
So - with that, here we go.
This year we planted a larger garden than last year. We thought last year's was so easy and fun, why not??
Here's why not.
1) When we tilled I was 36 weeks pregnant, when we planted I was 38 weeks pregnant, when peek weeding needed to be done I was having a baby, and when harvest was ready I had a 3 week old. What hugely pregnant lady wants to be bending over that much planting? Who with a newborn in the middle of summer can get out to the garden enough to weed and harvest? I have hated the garden from 38 weeks. I'm starting to appreciate it for its food giving possibilities.
2) Neither Susan nor I are nearly as stressed as we were last summer. Which means, we don't really need our "garden therapy" like we did last year. Infact, we they opposite of stressed, we're busy because we're not stressed. Which makes gardening time consuming.
Okay, now on to the rest of it.
- Something went wrong with our green beans. Last year we planted "bush beans" and they came up in neat little bushes that produced lots of green beans. However, it wasn't enough so this year instead of 1 row of beans we planted 3. But they aren't neat little plants, they're weird bush things that grew together so in order to weed or pick beans you have to seperate them all to find the path in between. very frustrating.
- the peas grew higher than our fence again. Probably because we didn't ever add the second row of chicken wire, and now they're falling all over the beans and broccoli. oh well... they're almost done and then I'm ripping them out. They're driving me crazy!!!
- I learned from my 9 year old niece that broccoli is actually a flower. Which means, all those flowers we got last year?? if we'd picked them earlier we would have had broccoli. oy, well, found this out a little late this year but still got a decent amount of broccoli, just not as much as we could have.
- We accidentally planted cucumbers, squash, and zuccini too close together this year. Which means the poor cucumbers are getting NO sun, because they squash leaves are covering them. Not sure how well they'll do this year.
- We planted Strawberries in their own fenced in area from plants (not seeds this year) and they are doing pretty well. We even got 1 strawberry for our first year, didn't eat it though.
- We did spinach instead of lettuce. Last years lettuce was a major disaster! The spinach has tasted wonderful though and makes incredible salads! Way better than store bought!!
- Carrots are coming up. My 4 year old keeps pulling them to see if they're ready. Might have a problem with the carrot crop this year bc of this...
- green onions are doing well!!
- we have 7 tomato plants! I'm not sure what they all are though! We bought 3 of our own to plant and the rest were given to us without knowledge as to what they are - so that will be a surprise! So far we have atleast 2 grape tomato plants...
I think I made it all the way around the garden!!
Last night while dripping in sweat and being torn up by zuccini and squash leaves I found a snake skin out side my garden fence! I screamed - and then had to play it off to my 4 yr old like it was no big deal. But oh my goodness, I HATE snakes! I may not enter the garden again barefoot. I was glad I had boots and gloves when I found that. A few weeks ago I saw a mouse entering the garden from our compost pile. I think that means we need to flip it. I've been really bad about flipping it since I'm so limited on time in the garden. I'm literally feeding the baby and running out there to work on it until my husband says she's hungry again. Not a whole lot of time for menial jobs like "flipping the compost"! Just kidding, its important.
I got eaten up by bugs too. If you don't like bugs, don't garden, or pretend like you don't see them, hear them, or feeling them on you... eck. I don't like bugs. It's very hard to pretend.
I've been trying to conquer a weed situation that got out of control. Its taking several trips to the garden to do so. I'll probably need to go back out there tonight, if my husband will let me. Although he keeps saying he needs to mow, and he does... but the garden needs attention!
I just don't want to take the baby out in this heat...
And so begins the garden stories... lets hope they're not too jumbled since they are just a gathering of my messy thoughts while gardening.
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