Our garden!

Reposted from September 19, 2010

we started a garden at the beginning of august. i knew nothing about gardening whatsoever so i bought some books, talked to some people, looked stuff up online and then just jumped right in. jens and i tilled a rectangular patch of soil behind our little bungalow. we weren't sure where to put it in order for it to get maximum sunlight and we ended up having to dig the whole thing over again when we realized it needed to be 4 feet closer to the house in order to get more sun lol oops!

let me tell you- it was hard work! we got all the weeds, grass, etc. out, put a wooden frame around it that jens nailed together and then mixed the soil with compost and other soil we had bought. then we put this little white picket fence up around it to keep the dogs out. the fence was pretty dingy and dirty so we decided to paint it some bright cheery colors! grassy green, bright fuchsia and sunny yellow! it took several weeks before we were finally done painting!

around aug. 15th i transplanted our basil and oregano into the garden and planted some winter squash seeds. the herbs flourished but the squash never sprouted! then around sept. 10th (i think it was...) i gave up on the squash and raked down the hills i had formed for them. i planted carrot and cabbage seeds and hoped they would do well.

then we had that day of torrential rains! my garden looked like a pond and i feared my seeds were done for! but that was in fact exactly what they needed! i had sprouts one or two days later INCLUDING the winter squash sprouts which were now all over the garden and not in a neat row since i raked them out lol i transplanted two of the squash sprouts to be near the others and not interfere with the carrots.

all the sprouts have just been getting bigger and bigger and it gives me hope that i might actually grow something edible! woohoo!

i still don't think my garden gets as much sun as it needs because there are so many trees in our yard but the leaves are falling like crazy so maybe the garden will have more light soon enough.

later i'm going to plant onions, garlic and spinach.

we started a compost pile too. we just got some rolled up wire fencing stuff, formed it into a circle and wired it to the side of our fence (so it would stay standing up). then we just started throwing all our produce trash and garden refuse in there, like leaves, etc. you can't put meat, fat or grain products into it i don't think. but you can put paper products in there- used napkins and such. some websites say you have to be careful about the percentage of produce trash to garden refuse you put in but we haven't really been worrying about it too much. it seems to be doing it's thing!

when i'm cooking and i have peelings and bits and pieces of veg. leftover i throw them in a groc. bag in the freezer and once it's full i go out and dump it in the compost pile and kind mix it in with a pitch fork. maybe one day it'll be some really good compost for the garden or yard. it may be a year or more before there's anything usable and we may not even live here anymore but i wanted to go ahead and start it so i could see how to do it, etc. and my parents can continue it after we move.

so that's my gardening adventure so far! it's really exciting to see things sprouting and growing and to think i might actually be able to eat a vegetable i grew myself! i'm doing it all organically too. i won't be spraying pesticides, but there are organic sprays you can make if you have certain bugs, etc.

i'll keep you all updated about how it's going! til next time!