Starting a Garden

I have to admit something.  I don’t exactly have a green thumb.  Unlike my mother in law who has a gift with plants, anything green left me with me eventually turns brown or worse, dies.  Whenever I went on vacation, I used to tell my plants that they were going to the spa (aka my mother in law’s house).  They always came back lush and green and healthy.  Fortunately, my children have survived having me as a Mom (so far).

Having a garden was one of the goals that I set for myself as part of our family’s “Reduce Our Waste” journey. No packaging if you grow your own fruits and vegetables!  Even with my brown thumb, I successfully grew a wide variety of herbs last year: thyme, oregano, parsley, rosemary, mint and sage.  Growing herbs is very easy and requires relatively little maintenance.  Heck, if I can do it, anybody can!  As long as there is sun and the plants are watered regularly, there is no problem.  If you don’t have a yard, you can easily grow herbs in pots.

I decided that I would try and grow two vegetables that I have to buy packaged:  cauliflower and cherry tomatoes.  I also want to grow garlic but that needs to be started in the fall.

The challenge with our property is that it is (1) relatively small and (2) quite shady.  I have tried to grow a few things in different locations, however, the best spot is the side of the house. It is south facing and as the spot is wedged between two houses, it is somewhat protected from the elements.

My plan was to remove the grass and expand the garden to a rectangle approximately 6 m long by 1 m wide:

This Fashionista can farm…

After some good sweat equity, I had the garden area defined.  I ordered a load of soil mixed with compost from our local nursery:

Whoever thought a pile of dirt could make me so happy?  Plus, no need to exercise today.  Moving this dirt around is all I need.

I had leftover bricks from installing a patio door on the back of the house and I used those bricks to line the edge of my garden.  Reuse 😊 yeah!  After adding the soil, it was time to plant the seedlings that I bought at the local nursery.   I planted cauliflower, broccoli, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, butternut squash (my favorite) and yellow zucchini (my husband’s favorite).   I also planted strawberries. Since I had planted rhubarb last year, I wanted to be able to make strawberry rhubarb pie with fruit from my garden….

And with that my garden was done:

And so was I:

Challenge for the Week:  Do you want to try to start a small garden like I did? Or do you have a great gardening story to share?