Lo Hice!
I did it! I found a way to make my blog even more dull. We are going to watch the grass grow together. Okay, not grass but probably something just about as interesting…our attempt at a garden. We’ve been talking about wanting one for the past couple of years – mostly likely because we can’t plant one. Stupid lease.
To make a short story long, our lease is up April 30th. We looked at houses and thought very seriously about building or buying one…then chickened out. We decided to stay put for 1 more year to further reduce our debt before we take on another mortgage. (Being a grown up sucks sometimes.) But right after we made the decision, we saw an interesting house go up on the MLS. We live in an area where 95% of the homes were built in the past 20 years. It is subdivision city where you are guaranteed a cookie cutter house and a home owner’s association. We dislike those 2 things immensely but there are enough things about this area that we like that we are willing to put up with them. But this house wasn’t in a subdivision and it was over 100 years old. Guaranteed plumbing and electrical issues character – instant lust from us.
We went to see it. The yard was wonderful. Large but not too much mowing, mature trees (even a swing hanging from one which Sabrina liked), a garden all fenced off, and around the house itself an actual picket fence (no longer white but it could be). But alas, the house itself wasn’t the dream. Without adding on at least 1 room, it wouldn’t work for our family so we had to pass on it.
That night we went to bed with visions of gardens dancing in our heads. I couldn’t let it go. I started thinking about a container garden but some quick pricing on large planters proved that for 1 year (next year we hope to have our own yard so that we can plant in the actual ground) it was too much of an investment. It would be cheaper just to make our weekly trips to the farmers market. Then I had ‘another one of my brilliant ideas’ (80’s sitcom reference – anyone?) for a rather inexpensive (but not pretty) way to do a container garden. Today we bought seeds and planted them. We’ll move them outside when they are ready. The ultimate hope is that this year we learn a little something about gardening while reaping a few veggies for our efforts so that we can have a nice garden next year. We also hope that involved Sabrina in the process will get her excited about vegetables and she might actually allow a few to pass through her lips without an argument.
Aside from my herbs, we are trying tomatoes, green peppers, jalapenos, green onions, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, and 2 kinds of lettuce. I know nothing about gardening except I hated it when my dad used to make up get up really early on the weekends to work in the garden – especially we didn’t want to eat most of what he was growing.
But your Dad prided himself on having the first ripe tomato in the county! Hope your garden grows great!
ok, here’s the deal with gardening. water. A vegetable garden won’t work without water. Ok, it will, but it takes research and I’m guessing you may not want to go through all that trouble. Here are the other things. Tomatoes & peppers need as much sun as you can give them. Also invest in a blossom end rot spray (there is an organic one out there). Spray every 2 weeks. May seem like a pain, but do it especially if you have any humidity in the summer. Cucumbers, give them room. They are like any other curcubit veg in that they get huge. Lettuce won’t germinate (grow) in soil temperatures above 72 degrees. Plant that now, enjoy over the spring and replant in late summer. Don’t pre-start your carrots or radishes. They are root crops and don’t like being transplanted. If you are starting your onions from seed they will take 2 years. You are best off purchasing starts and they can be harvested as soon as you have enough green on top. Plant them in furrows, but plant them in the top of the furrow instead of in the trough. Onions don’t like wet feet.
A good all purpose organic fertilizer will be good for you. Stay away from the Miracle Grow and the like as it forces growth and sucks all of the flavor out of your food. good luck. let me know if you need any further advice.
I’m a little confused, what is it that you are going to use for the containers? I can remember planting tomatoes in those big 5 gallon buckets like the ones you get from Home Depot. I poked a few holes in the bottoms with some nails, then put a layer of rocks for drainage and then put dirt in. Tomatoes do need water and sun, but the containers need drainage. True, the big buckets were hideous, but none the less grew some fantastic tomatoes! Good luck. By the way, we saw snow flurries on the weather map for Nashville, brrr!
GEEZ, you had me all excited that you were teasing with the dull watching seeds grow thing and that you were buying the house.Sorry it didn’t work out!
Good luck with your seeds. I tried that once, and I ended up killing them all. But, that’s because I wasn’t dedicated enough!!
Good luck with the gardening! I love the idea and we do one every year – start out strong but after a few weeks I unfortunately lose interest and the follow through is not what it needs to be. Still, we get plenty of tomatos and fresh basil. Every year we say we will be different, but alas, we only have half a green thumb (the part that is excited about the porspect but hates weeding). All good intentions…
Good luck! We had one before the kids and I did another last year since I was at home. I ended up growing all of our tomatoes and squash for the year, plus made most of the tomato sauce for the year too. I also made our pear sauce(much like apple sauce) for the year from my mom’s pear tree. This year I’m doubling it to include some extra veggies, plus I’m putting in a berry patch.
Ok a few tips, composting is easy, doesn’t stink when done right and great for your soil. If you don’t want to do any work, coffee grounds help. Cut up your banana peels and sprinkle around your pepper plants, it will make them sweeter.
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