Where do I start….this question is hardest part about cultivating your suburban homestead! Even if you are lucky enough to have a lot of space. We have all been there and if your like me, stayed up late at night, planning my execution, anxious about wanting to get started, broken hearted when things went array, overwhelmed by the countless dos and don’ts online and feeling the happiness of watching your garden grow, to feeding your family completely home grown, even if its just a handful of cherry tomatoes!
I started my garden journey in 2019. My kids were older and less needy, leaving time for myself to find new hobbies. I have always loved the process of a growing plant. I watched my family garden and can and I loved the idea. My grandmother grew up during the great depression and had shared so much of her knowledge with me in the kitchen. I loved the homemade salsas and fruit preserves. I always killed anything I planted in the past, so I just assumed that I just didn’t have the green thumb they did. 10 years ago I planted one tomato plant and watched it die a horrific death. Meanwhile, my neighbor has a flourishing ecosystem from the front to the back of the yard.
2020 I moved into a new home and wanted to give it a go at growing plants I found at the local garden center. It was during COVID so I needed a hobby. I had tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers of all varieties, corn, potatoes, and pumpkins. Yes, I know what your saying “wasn’t that a bit zealous” and YES, yes it was. I had them all in buckets, they did ok, I got a few fruits, most of them failed. I met their basic needs….water. That was it. I didn’t notice anything about a plant other than it looking dead, I felt it was just the life cycle of the plant and the ending of the season. I also had suffered a ruptured Brain Aneurysm at the end of 2020 and had two weeks away from all that I had taken care of that year, so I called my failure a wash!
In 2021 I moved to another home. I took a hiatus in 2021 to heal from my two brain surgeries and regain my strength. Once I was settled 2022 I dialed it down a bit with a couple cherry tomato’s and a couple pepper plants on the deck in five gallon buckets. I was a bit neglectful with the water, and it was a dry year and we were really busy. They did ok, I didn’t do anymore than some Miracle Gro. Lots of Cherries and a few peppers, I picked them as soon as I saw them, Put them in a basket and let most of them rot to death. I realized that I might not be good at this whole gardening thing, but I did have this spark with watching the plants I did have producing FOOD! So I watched video on how to garden. I did so much research because I can’t let things go, no matter how hard I try.
In 2023, groceries are high, the news was reporting all the pesticides and unethical behavior in and recalls in our food. I watched a horrible biography on spinach so I bought the seeds (I wanted to stay away from garden center vegetables because those were horrible too), the right dirt, then some other dirt someone suggested, many fertilizers (oh wait I should go organic) and pest control chemicals (again organic!). I was overwhelmed with where to start, what do I use and when, ugh! The internet has so much information, it does make it hard to just do the basics and get a simple answer! With success growing most of the seeds I was off to a great start! I learned a few things however. I had my boyfriend build the plantar box on the side of the deck, which was a nice space without compromising our yard. I had prepared several five gallon buckets to place in another area that I could move around, I got too excited and planted early, some died, some flourished, some got diseases, and some were overwhelmed by pests. I went to my garden every morning, inspecting every plant. If I saw something I google imaged it and researched ever moment the garden gave me. I had the chemicals so I applied those, again, too much info and I was overwhelmed. My tomatoes toppled over that year, they produced but it was a tangled mess and they got late blight. The squash I planted was taken over by pests and the cantaloupe gave me one baby cantaloupe. I fertilized, but then kept researching and I might have done it wrong, I might have over or under watered and I might have just wasted my time. But come August, I felt proud of my flower and veggie garden. It turned out better than the previous years. All fall and winter I researched how to better. I spent hours educating myself on anything and everything. But the best thing about the flower garden was the colony of bumblebees that I befriended. I talked to them everyday like a crazy lady and they even let me touch them! All of Gods Glory! I was able to can quite a bit last year and it made me so happy to see the fruits of my labor! Literally!
By 2024 I had learned a lot and researched hour and hours of getting this right and my garden is thriving and I am able to really take on things as they come without running to google for a wealth of useful, useless and worthless information. I had failures of course but I see how educating myself has really ramped up my abilities and grew me a bright green thumb!
My goal is to share my thoughts on what I have learned along the way in hopes to help my other garden lovers. Then take you through the whole process of seed to table. I also hope that I can gain some useful information from my visitors as well! Happy Gardening 365!