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Six Gardening Lessons Learned

This will be my last post about my garden for the year. I’m not planning on doing a fall or winter garden. Thanks for those of you who have stopped by and taken the time to read about my gardening adventures. I did this mostly for myself and to help others who were gardening virgins like me, but it was nice to know that others read the blog too.

I will start again in the spring, although I won’t be a veggie garden virgin anymore. A quick rundown of what I learned this summer:

1. Start early- You can start planting after the last frost of the spring, which in North Carolina is around mid-April. I figured I still had plenty of time after that because it didn’t start to get warm until mid-May. Due to procrastination, I didn’t really get started until the end of May. Next year, I will start a lot easier so I get more produce out of the garden.

2. Root vegetables are evil- I will stay away from root vegetables. I had long carrot tops in my garden and picked them figuring  the carrots would be several inches long. Wrong! The two carrots together probably added up to two inches. When I told someone about my underperforming carrots, she admitted that she had the same problems of being able to tell when root vegetables were ready.

3. Watermelons will take over the garden- I planted watermelon because I enjoy them and thought they would be great to eat throughout the summer. Unbeknownst to me, watermelons grow on very large vines that like to spread out and up, taking over everything in its path. Much like the blob. Fewer watermelon seeds next year.

4. Fertilize more- I fertilized very few times over the summer. I bought rich soil and thought that would be enough. This is probably the reason why my produce was rather anemic. I will fertilize more next summer and hopefully start a compost bin.

5. Beds need regular maintenance- I made sure to do regular weeding, watering and all the typical maintenance but once the heavy rains came over  a week to one and a half week period, I dropped the ball. The mini floods caused the garden mounds to flatten out. I didn’t rebuild them because I didn’t want to disturb the growth process. Now I realize that I should have rebuilt the mounts to improve drainage.

6. Take no prisoners when it comes to garden creatures- I knew I had a problem with creatures in my garden for several weeks before I took action. The fence proved to be very effective. Lesson learned is not to wait so long next time. Take decisive action and don’t put up with creatures eating your vegetables and pooping in your garden.

I’m sure there are many more lessons I’ve learned throughout the summer, but these six immediately came to mind.

Thanks for reading and see you in 2015!

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End of the Road

I had high expectations for this blog when I started this venture- I was going to post twice a week, build a community of gardeners and the blog was going to catch on. Well, that didn’t quite happen or even come anywhere close. Due to summer travel, the World Cup and taking on a couple of new volunteer projects, I’ve barely managed to keep up. Such is life, I suppose. Unfortunately, this is going to be the end of the road (Boys II Men chorus going through my head) for the blog this year. Well, maybe one more post after this. Gotta tell you what I learned!

Cucumbers in produce basket

Cucumbers in produce basket

Let me start off with the good. I finally got edible produce from my garden! I pulled two cucumbers from my garden which you can see on the right. One is a healthy green and the other is yellowish. That’s because we got a TON of rain over a week to week and a half period. Too much or too little water can cause the yellow color.

I didn’t care; I finally got to use my produce basket! On the other hand, with all of the money I put into the garden, the cost for each cucumber averages out to about $100. Not exactly cost effective. I cut up the good cucumber and put it in a salad. Delicious if I must say!

That was the mostly good. The bad was that one of my watermelons split open. I believe that this was a result of the heavy rains as well. The garden became saturated and the soil didn’t drain well. I’m down to one watermelon. I’m waiting for it to fall off the vine. I’m sure it will be delicious though.

Next up- telling you what I learned from maintaining my first garden

Salad with my garden cucumber

Salad with my garden cucumber

Split watermelon

Split watermelon

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Tricked by a Carrot

Things in the garden are still going well; the watermelon and cucumbers are getting larger and I’m seeing new sprouts each week. This post is focusing on another vegetable in my garden- the carrot.

A couple months back I planted a row of carrot seeds. Weeks went by and I didn’t see any results. I figured they just never sprouted. In this post, I asked if the green things were weeds or vegetables. The consensus was that they were vegetables. The group was right, but I was oh so wrong.

CarrotsThe greenery sticking out of the garden was about a foot high. I thought if these were the carrots I planted, they would be pretty large by now. So, I went ahead and picked what I was sure were flourishing orange carrots. You can see the results to the right. The long, green tops fooled me. The bigger of the two carrots was barely
a nub and very very thin. The other wasn’t even worth taking a picture of. But I did want to put this very nice produce basket (a lovely gift from my mother-in-law) to use. Even though I made a judgement error on the carrots; I’m sure I will soon have enough produce to fill the basket.

On a brighter note, check out the cucumber below. Almost ready to pick!

cucumber 82014

 

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Feeling like a Proud Mama

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted again. Since then, I’ve taken a family vacation to Disney World and made a weekend trip to the beach with girlfriends. Yes I know, my life is hard. But the traveling hasn’t left much time for posting.

Watermelon!

Watermelon!

Before I left for my vacations, I started drafting a post about having second thoughts. I felt like I did in college when I woke up the morning after spending the previous night drinking Boone’s Farm. Thoughts running through my head then and now- what was I thinking? Why did I think that was a good idea? I was very frustrated with my garden. It seemed like a lot of work for no return.

But I’m happy to report that I have fruit growing! With all the rain we’ve had lately, my watermelon are really starting to take off. I feel like a proud mama. All the planting, maintaining and weeding have paid off. It just took awhile. I can also see other water melon starting to come in. In a conversation I had with a coworker the other day, we decided that baby fruits and vegetables are extremely cute. Baby anything, really.

It’s good to know that the hard work is paying off and that I’ll soon have produce to enjoy. I think my carrot is about ready to pick and my cucumbers should start coming in any day. Below are other pictures I took of my garden today.

Baby Watermelon

Baby Watermelon

Garden on August 18

Garden on August 18

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Weed or Vegetable?

I made an error last week and scheduled this post for publishing before I got it done. Below is the post in its entirety.

Weed or Vegetable?

Weed or Vegetable?

I know some of you were probably thinking that I was referring to a certain type of weed in my title. No, this isn’t Colorado or Washington; I’m referring to a typical garden invader. I’ve got something growing in my garden and I’m not sure if it’s a carrot I planted or if it’s just a weed that needs pulling. See picture on the right.

So, new game- weed or vegetable? Anyone who can tell me which it is will receive fresh produce from the garden! Well, when the produce comes in. Looks that might still be a few weeks away. I’d go ahead and pull whatever it is but I’d be upset if I pulled a carrot before it was fully grown. The garden is not exactly spilling over with produce.

On the other hand, my cucumber and watermelon plants are growing like weeds. They’re starting to take over their corners of the garden. When I went out there to check on how things were progressing, I noticed that one of the cucumber plants had reached out and had twisted one of its tendrils around a stake. I thought it was pretty cool.

Watermelon taking over a corner of the garden

Watermelon taking over a corner of the garden

Cucumber plant twisting around a stake

Cucumber plant twisting around a stake

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State of the Garden Report

All last week I was expecting to go out to the garden to see part of the fence collapsed or a big hole in it. But the good news is that it’s still doing it’s job. No signs of four legged visitors disrupting the soil. I can relax and just enjoy taking care of the garden.

I did get a question last week on how I was going to get in and out of my garden with new fence installed. I answered that I would use a step stool to get in. When asked what about getting back out, I stared blankly for a few seconds because I didn’t have a good answer. I probably should’ve developed a solution for that dilemma. On the bright side, I did some weeding this week and could lean far enough over the top of the fence to get it done. There are some space between the rows so I can get in there if I need to and avoid trampling the plants.

To report on the current state of my garden: The two watermelon plants I planted last month are doing very well. The vines are starting to take over. I planted two more and they’re starting to bud. I have three cucumber plants which are getting bigger every day. I planted two more and those are popping up as well. I haven’t seen any pepper or carrot seedlings yet though. I’m hoping those appear this week since I planted those at the beginning of the month. We’ve gotten several days of good soaking rain this week, so watering on my part was at a minimum. Overall, a good week in the garden!

Pictures of my garden as of July 20 below.

Still waiting for the problem of overabundance in my garden

Still waiting for the problem of overabundance in my garden

Side view of the garden as of July 20

Side view of the garden as of July 20

 

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Things are Looking Up!

I finally finished the fence around the garden a couple of days ago. I haven’t noticed any animal related activity in the garden since then. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this holds true and the fence holds up. The only bad thing is that the fence is about belly button high. I’m going to have to either figure out how to high jump over the top or use a step stool to get in there. I thought about building a gate into the fence but I read that could be a weak point and become a point of entry for pests. I figure if I have a hard time getting in, the critters will too.

Now that my garden has a defense from pests, I went ahead and planted more seeds. I currently only have two watermelon plants and three cucumber plants that are doing well. I planted more watermelon and cucumber and also carrots and red peppers. I’m choosing to remain optimistic and look forward to a bounty of fresh fruits and veggies in the next several weeks.

My next steps are to add fertilizer to the garden to boost growth and continue watering daily. Before we hit the summer heat, I was only watering every other day. Between daily watering and the multiple rainstorms we had last week, I’ve noticed a big difference.

I admit I got pretty down about the state of the garden after the week of neglect. I thought about quitting and just trying again next year. But I’m pushing forward so we’ll see what happens. With the World Cup finally over, I’ll have fewer distractions. And fewer things to blame when I screw up.

Take a look at the current state of the garden below.

Long view of the nearly bare garden

Long view of the nearly bare garden

Completed garden with fence

Completed garden with fence

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Garden 2.0

Okay, after last week’s disaster, I’m back on track. No more neglecting the garden. I’ve been on top with watering and weeding. I would’ve planted more seeds, but I figured that was pointless until I got the fence up.

Fence supplies

Fence supplies

Off to the local big box hardware store for supplies. I decided to use metal stakes and chicken wire about three feet high. I watched this video on how to build a fence. He used a sturdier material but I’m hoping the chicken wire will be strong enough.

I’m glad I watched the video because my first thought was to dig a few foot deep holes around the garden, insert posts and hook the fence between them. The guy in this video hooked the fence between the stakes and curved the fence at the bottom so animals couldn’t dig under. He then staked the fence along the ground. This seemed like the easier option, so of course I went with it.

Fence stakes in the ground

Fence stakes in the ground

I started by hammering the stakes into the ground with a mallet. One of the posts required digging out rocks underneath the surface. Once those were out of the way, no more problems. The other posts went in pretty easily. I put four posts around the corners and two in the middle. Should I have measured to make sure the posts were equidistant? Yes. Did I? No. I know, I know. If I’m going to do something I should make sure I do it right. But this was after mowing part of the backyard and most of the front. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do on a nearly 90 degree day but no one’s ever mistaken me for a genius.

Next, I strung the chicken wire between the posts. The posts had handy notches on them where I could hook the chicken wire into. I was pretty pleased with how the first side looked. Then I realized that I didn’t have stakes to root the chicken wire to the ground or zip ties to make sure the chicken wire stayed tight against the posts. Back to the home improvement store. But on another day. I was quite tired from all the yard work so I’ll have to finish later in the week. But take a look below! I think the fence looks pretty good so far.

Fence with one side complete

Fence with one side complete

 

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I’m Blaming It All on the World Cup

I took an unplanned break for the garden. I didn’t intend to, but between going out of town, my birthday and some fabulous World Cup games, the garden fell by the wayside for a week. Now I’m regretting it. So yes, I’m absolving myself of any responsibility for the state the garden is in and placing the blame squarely on the World Cup.

It only happens every four years! How could you not stop to watch the 32 best football teams on the planet, especially come the knockout rounds? I’ve chosen to use the correct term for the sport instead of the American term for anyone who may be confused. The announcers are rubbing off on me.

So this afternoon I visited the garden for the first time since early last week. It ‘s rained a few times since then so I wasn’t concerned about the garden lacking water. But one of the watermelon plants was completely withered and sitting on top of the soil. A couple of areas in the large box had been dug up. Once I poked around, I discovered ants, maggot like creatures and small, round balls which I guess are eggs of some kind. Weeds are starting to proliferate in the smaller box.

I’m down to two watermelon plants, three cucumber plants and either a few carrot plants or weeds. I have to admit the garden is looking rather sad. SJ showed me one of his friend’s pictures of their garden on Facebook. It was lush and green. And I was green with envy. (Bad pun intended.)

I’m going to look at this unintended break as halftime and use it to regroup. I’m going to do a better job of staying on top of what’s going on in the garden and tending to it. The fence around the garden is still in the works. I sprayed the ants and other bugs with a vinegar and water mixture I found online. So hopefully that will help get rid of them. I’m going to do a second planting to see if that produces better results. I’d really like to have some produce to enjoy out of the garden this summer.

We’ll see how the second half of the summer goes with the garden. If you have any advice to share, please send comments, ideas, etc. my way!

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Eating Whole and Healthy Foods

One of the reasons I started a vegetable garden was to have access to fresh healthy foods. I try to eat a lot of produce already. In fact, I subscribe to Veggie Van, a weekly CSA type service where I pay a flat rate and get local fruits and vegetables for a low price. I love my Veggie Van! (Gratuitous shout out over.) I thought that having my own garden could help me even further in the pursuit of a diet full of whole foods.

Recently I started reading Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss. It talks about how the processed food industry has used those three ingredients and a mix of marketing to get us hooked on convenience foods. I’m not too far in but I’ve found it very interesting reading so far. One thing that really stood out to me is that I’ve heard that you should eat like your grandparents ate meaning more natural and whole foods and less of the processed stuff. Convenience foods started getting popular in the mid-1950s when women were entering the workforce more and couldn’t spend all day in the kitchen. It turns out eating processed foods is how our grandparents ate! Not all of them of course, but more than I originally thought.

Another thing that has motivated me to limit my intake of processed foods (which is extremely difficult since I certainly love my sugar and desserts) is a challenge that a couple of my coworkers have taken on. Chasity and Chelsea are going the entire month of June without eating sugar, bread, dairy, fast food or processed foods. While I know I could never give up bread, dairy or sugar, watching them go through the challenge has inspired me. They’ve been coming up with creative new recipes to make up for what they’ve taken out of their diet for the month. Since they started, I’ve found myself cutting back on breads and desserts. I would really like to make an effort to make desserts from scratch but I’m not quite there yet.

So all in all I’ve got several sources of motivation to eat more whole foods. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving up sweets or processed foods entirely; I’m just trying to eat a little less.