Bugs Bunny Would Be Proud

At the beginning of the season, we planted our garden in a really nice raised bed garden. The dirt here in our area of Virginia is primarily red clay, and really rocky. Also, since I live in a subdivision the builders had very little interest in properly disposing of things like stray shingles, siding, pieces of down spout. It's great... We'll be digging up an area of the yard and will find no less than 5 pieces of random building materials... Fabulous eh? Not so fabulous for growing things though.

When I embarked on my garden growing adventures, I knew that I wanted nothing to do with planting IN our dirt. A lot of it had to do with the crap that we were finding in the ground, but also I had a lot of interest in growing the whole garden organically. I knew that I could do that if I had the dirt trucked in, and dumped into the raised bed. Jon's Dad and I went and got the manure and dirt, and filled up the bed... What a messy job. If someone had told me 10 years ago that I would've been up to my ankles in cow poop, I would've told them they were insane. However, this year Danny and I successfully moved all that poop... all by ourselves... And I was gleeful over all that poop. I knew how wonderful it was for our plants.
Boy has my life changed...

Nearly every single one of the plants, I started from seed. I bought some at our local feed store. Others, I purchased from catalogs. Like this really cool Lemon Cucumber... It tastes exactly like a cucumber, but looks nothing like one. Contrary to it's "acidic" name, it actually has a lower acid level than your typical cucumber! Cucumbers acid is what gives you the reflux that makes you burp it back up. These lemon cukes don't have that issue. They're really yummy, once you get past the incredibly odd appearance!

I planted watermelons, zucchini, butternut squash, cantaloupes, pumpkins, lemon cukes, regular cukes, sugar snap peas, carrots, 3 types of peppers and tomatoes. We had 4 different types of tomatoes, Big Boys, Mr. Stripey's (another low acid fruit), romas, and cherries. 

Now those of you who have planted in the past are probably looking at this bountiful list of vegetables, and are thinking I planted my entire backyard. You'd be wrong. I wish I had. Our 10x10x10 plot, was not NEARLY big enough. Honestly, the plot was probably just big enough for the pumpkin! I had no clue of how much things like pumpkins spread out! It was phenomenal to me. Live and Learn people, Live and Learn.

With that being said, nearly everrything that we planted, lived. Shocking I know. And even more shocking, nearly everything flourished! It was phenomenal to see my seedlings take root and just...grow. I was really really proud. In doing all of this, I also found an incredible new hobby. I totally enjoy gardening... Like enjoy it HUGELY. I absolutely adore going out into the garden and pruning, picking, sniffing, and just admiring. I have a huge amount of satifaction knowing that I did this... I did it with my own two hands. Knowing that we have bought absolutely no produce this season, is unbelieveable to me. Also the learning experience?? Phenomenal. I learned SO much this year that I can apply to next year. I also loved making new friends through the gardening experience. I loved being able to talk about my garden, and being able to show people what I had done... It was something I was really proud of.

We actually have a friend who is a really established gardener. He was just amazed that I was able to grow carrots. And not only that I grew them, but that I sow'd my own seeds and grew them. However in growing my carrots, I learned something really valuable. Apparently you need to thin out carrots... Who knew? Not me. This would explain why I have carrots varying in size from 6" to less than 1/4". But now I know! I really got a huge amount of satisfaction growing these little carrots... Dumping seeds right into the ground, watering them, and then pulling little gifts out of the ground!

Enjoy the video...

Comments

[Christina]

Have you read "Square Foot Gardener?" Great book for maximizing small spaces!

[Kelly A.]

You did a great job with your garden! You should be so proud!!