Gardening For The Pre-Beginner

My friend Sara has graciously written a guest post for this month of gardening.  Her blog is a great read (she is much funnier than I will ever be) and I am hoping someday she will write a memoir :)  Enjoy!

 My thoughts on being able to grow a vegetable garden that eventually yields edible food is the equivalent of being able to drive a stick shift: I don't understand the mechanics and it's just easier to drive an automatic car to the store to enjoy their produce section.

Even so, I'm trying to challenge myself more this year and I thought I would take on starting a garden with Kristen too. Alas, this resolution is falling into the same category as my resolution to read more and watch less reality TV: it's a good thought, but how can I not watch when Shahs of Sunset has premiered?!

 

 Having had very little experience and success with plants, I decided I need to start small and take baby steps (like replacing one reality show with another instead of just adding yet another show to the que. Plus my DVR is getting too full and won't allow me add a new show).

So here's my guide for those of us whose green thumb is kinda broken and might even qualify for disability:

1. Lower Your Expectations- In my mind I thought I had to create something like this:

 

 

I decided to just work on growing something, anything. And it didn't even have to be a fruit or vegetable. If it had leaves and was mostly green, it would count.

2. Start Small- really small. I tried one of those little pre-packaged flower pots in the dollar section at Target:

Only 2 stalks have survived and they still look the same after 3 weeks of "growth". I think they're ready to be replanted in the backyard now, right?

3. Enlist Help - I've found child labor is best. It's free if you've got a few kids hanging around. The younger the better because they find this stuff interesting and don't mind playing in dirt.

If you don't have enough kids, find a local mom's group and organize a gardening "play date" and let everyone at it in your flower beds.

4. Play Your Cards Right With Mother Nature - or just plant one stalk of mint out of desperation. You might get rewarded with this:

So there you have it, in 4 easy steps you too can make new friends with local moms, fight childhood obesity through digging, and have fresh mint for your dinner salad (salad not included). If the taste of sweet success and mint have you wanting more, keep checking Kristen's blog to see how a real garden is grown (or at least properly attempted).

Keep Out!

This Saturday is planting day!   I really didn't think it would take the entire month to get the garden ready for planting.  It has been lot of work but hopefully we will have some success and be able to garden year round.  Dennis and Kenzie built a cage to keep out the critters.  The cage covers all but the back row of plants so we can grow tall things like tomatoes.  

 

 

Dirt

It has been slow going on this garden because taking the kids to the store to look at plants/seeds/etc. is not working for us.  This week we (my husband) turned up the existing ground inside the box to loosen it up.

 Then we added 5 bags of soil.  We contemplated a lot about what mix of soil to use and finally surrendered and used some ready made Square Foot Gardening mix.

  It was so easy to just dump it in and not worry about mixing and buying the right stuff.  I also found the Square Foot Gardening book at Half Price Books.

We noticed that some critters have already been foraging around in the soil so we are going to have to find a way to protect the garden before we start planting anything.

Free Update

We've been continuing to enjoy some fun free stuff:

*I got my Target bill today (mostly from February) and it was only $14 :)

*A few weeks ago we saw Proof, a play put on by Trinity Street Players.  They do a few free plays a year (with donations welcome).  It was an intimate theater and the play was surprisingly good. 

*The Annual Kite Festival was a few weeks ago and it was perfect weather!

*And I gave my youngest a haircut for the first time.  He was a little weary but The Wonder Pets kept him still.  I set the clippers to nine and went to town.  Then I took the guard off and touched up around the ears and neck.  Saved $20 :)

The Box

Step one complete!!  Here is the box for our our garden.  Thanks to my husband for putting this together!

We decided to go with the Square Foot Gardening method but modified a little.  We went with a 4x5 box that will be divided into 20 equal sections. Getting the soil is our next step and I've talked to a few people who've used his soil mix and found it to be expensive.  So, we are going to go with an alternative...I'll let you know once we've got it.  

The Plan

March is start a garden!!  I am excited but have very low expectations, so it should be great.  This month has a physical outcome so it will take actual time to complete.  Looking at my calendar, March seems like it will be a busy month so I've come up with a plan so this garden will actually happen.  Each week of the month, we will complete one task so we will have a garden with plants in it by the end of the month.

1) Research gardening (this will continue all month) and decide on a spot
2) Build the box/boxes
3) Fill with soil/prep
4) Buy plants/seeds and plant

Our garden is going to be organic but we haven't decided what to plant or which plants will start from seed and which will start from small plants.  If anyone has any advice on starting a small basic garden, it will be appreciated :)

Kenzie brushing up on her gardening skills with Grammie.