Reflections From a First Year Veggie Gardener

We're midway (I guess) through our vegetable growing season and what do I have to show for it? A few goodies and a lot of gained knowledge! It's been a great experience for our family. There is most assuredly room for improvement.

We really want to try corn next year! Everyone's hankering for sweet corn. I'd also like to try seed growing and maybe find some heirloom varieties.

First off, none of my spinach grew. Not sure why.

Also, cauliflower is more hassle (bugs, bugs, bugs!) than it's worth. No yield yet. Takes up a lot of space too.

The one melon plant that we put in has gone nuts and may yield 100 melons, if the flowers are any indication. Some of the leaves are appearing to brown and dry. Not sure why. It's getting plenty of water. Maybe too much sun?

The lettuce was a hit, but 2nd crop went to seed way quick. Have to be on the ball with it. I probably planted too much (12).

Our Sweet 100's are awesome, but it's been difficult to harvest enough at one time for more than a taste. We'll plant two of those babies next year.

Ack! The Japanese Beetles love the greenbean leaves. They haven't affected the beans yet. I just didn't want to use pesticide on them and those bags just attract more!

The one pea plant is not producing very much; same for the green bean plant.

The lima beans started out well, but fizzled.

The broccoli came out great, but a lot of room for the amount of yield. Probably not worth it for the size garden I have. Rabbits ate one.

Big tomatoes just didn't come in this year. Not sure what happened. Maybe transplanted too late.

Need more strawberry plants. Blackberry bush doing well in it's pot. Not sure about the blueberry bush. Maybe next year?

No sign of any peppers yet. We'll see. None of my squash or zucchini grew. Second year in a row! Very frustrating. They have good soil, water and sun. Could be those blasted rabbits!

My vine plants need more room. The greenbeans and peas are all intertwined. The melon needs a lot more vine. The Sweet 100's could use a tall cage instead of the vine. We'll see.

Overall, for what I started out to grow, we're only getting about a fourth. That seems like a lot of waste. I need to read more.

Don't laugh, but one of the biggest frustrations has been figuring out when to harvest. The book I have doesn't tell you. I did find out from the web why all my tomatoes were splitting--I was waiting too long and they were over ripening on the vine. Problem solved! I'm such a green-horn at this green stuff!! :)

Monster Truck; Monster Pile

Do you see this monstrous pile of mulch? Do you see my husband's sense of humor parking on top of it? This is his way of letting me in on the fact that he wearies of the "pile". It has dwindled significantly and will soon be gone. Hallelujah! Changing out our old moldy mulch for healthier, more natural mulch was a great idea (Thanks, Suz!), but a huge job! Now the children...that's a different matter...

To say that the children weary of the pile, would be false! They have climbed it, biked it, dug holes in it. They have turned it into the Alamo and fortified it with weapons. They have tracked it all over my house and worn it in their hair. The fact that it's half cow poop means little. It is the grand things that childhood are made of. It is heaven on earth and joy from the minute go. It will be sadly missed and though son has dutifully shoveled it for me, I believe he just wants to stay close to it!

First Harvest

I've been told that nothing tastes as good as that which comes from your own garden.
We are all in agreement!
Yes.
Even me!

Veggie Uprising

I actually did it!

I say that with elation, relief, and maybe a bit of disbelief. I actually did it. IT would be planning, building and PLANTING a vegetable garden. It's in. It's done--well, almost. Still have to put the trellis up and get a few more goodies to put in.

The first box.

The second box.


I had excellent help!

This is a big, BIG deal. This is HUGE. This is hilarious! (I giggle!) My mom, in heaven, is having a laugh over her "won't eat vegetables" daughter planting vegetables. Everyone who knows me is wondering if I'll ever eat any of them. I know they are thinking it. I can read it on their faces! :) Whether I will, or won't has yet to be determined, but I did IT. Whew!

Now, if I have to pick off bugs, I may quit. If I SEE a bug, I may quit. I'm praying for no bugs. I wonder if you're allowed to pray for no bugs?! It was one thing being up to my elbows in cow poop and compost, but I draw the line at vegetable eating bugs. Bleck!

This FIRST deserves a reward. There's ice cream, or chocolate, or chocolate ice cream....hmmm. The lawn mowing guy (not the husband, who hates to mow) is not going to be happy about having to maneuver around my gardens. I hope he doesn't find out about my bug "thing" and get even...

My inspiration? Well...there's this....

And this....

They love vegetables! Thank you, God! My little healthy eaters get to eat fresh veggies! Of course, the husband LOVES 'em too. Could never figure out how he has put up with my vegetablelessness (Is that a word?)

But there was also this mighty fine read: "The All New Square Foot Garden", by Mel Bartholomew. The best non-fiction gardening book I've ever read, and that's saying something!

Oh...We did have a near tragedy. Upon throwing down the hose, the sprayer came on and aimed directly at my precious girl, froze her to her seat (literally), soaking her to the bone and causing a short burst of tears. Thankfully, dry, warm clothes made everything just fine!

I'm definitely having a gardening "moment". Moments are a good thing!

One Square Foot at a Time

Finally, finally, FINALLY! I get to play in my yard, clean out my beds and plant my vegetable garden! Though we are nearly a month away from the last frost, the days are beginning to show some promise AND warmth. My kids played outside all afternoon on Saturday with their Daddy, flying kites and drawing on the driveway. And me! Well, I spent the afternoon at Lowes and 47 other places looking for compost.

Lowes made me happy though. They had some veggie starts and that was what I was ready to see! I finished getting the lumber and materials for my square foot gardens and after 3 trips through the check out line and to the car, I was done with them! This square foot gardening thing really does show incredible promise, but I'm a by-the-book (this book) kinda gal so when they say get five kinds of compost, that's what I'm going to do. Fortunately, I only have to do this once. I plan to start composting myself, too. So off to Home Depot, Menards, Meijer, Wal-Mart, etc. For some strange reason, all the garden centers around here aren't open yet. What's with THAT! I only found three types so far and two may be the same because one is not labeled. So I have cow, mushroom, and mystery compost. Doesn't that just thrill you to pieces?!!

I know I saw "worm casing" compost somewhere before--I think it was Sam's Club, so I'll head there in the next couple of days. I don't know what it is about this area, but they are all so IN to cow manure. It's just everywhere. I never thought I'd be interested in such things, but you know...a girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do. And this girl needs to plant vegetables for her family--if I don't self-destruct.

Ah! The joys of gardening! I've always loved flower gardening. Learning bit by bit, year after year. It's all great until about mid-July when it gets so stinkin' hot you'd rather be inside, and definitely NOT out weeding. My little Daffodils are up so far--nothing else. The pussy willow did fully puff out and the puffs are starting to "flower", or turn bright yellow. Can you tell I know nothing about these things?! . It's kind of a neat plant. I'm still waiting for my Forsythia though. The buds look good.

We have a weird bird visitor too. It keeps crashing into our windows trying to get in. When it's not crashing, it just hangs out on the screens. I think it likes us. Nothing we do seems to affect it. I haven't figured out what it is yet, so we get to do a little digging today. One day, I hope all these things will be our common knowledge. Until then, we'll just use the Field Guides!