How Does Your Garden Grow?
I am SO excited about our garden this year! We have had gardens in the past, but I usually get excited at first then quickly lose interest. It doesn’t help that I do not have a green thumb!
This year is different though. With our recent switch to a whole foods diet, produce takes a huge chunk of our grocery budget. Not to mention my kids practically inhale fruit. I really don’t know how they can eat so much! I’m excited to be able to have fresh produce in the next few months that is organic, fresh, and much much cheaper!
This year we have three 4×4 square foot garden beds. I planted a lot of different veggies, herbs, and a few flowers. We planted the first set of seeds on 4/12 and we’re already seeing several things sprouting! It is so exciting! I’ve been getting the kids involved (they planted quite a few of the seeds themselves) and I love seeing them “ohh and ahh” over the sprouts.
I do not consider myself a garden expert at all, so I wanted to share a few resources that I’ve found helpful in starting our garden this year:
- Gardening 101 series on Simple Organic – I found her Companion Planting post particularly helpful.
- Square Foot Gardening – I am very excited to try this simple method of gardening.
- Grow Veg – I am trying this 30-day trial and so far I’m loving this garden planner!
- Organic Gardening on Keeper of the Home – Lots of great info on this blog!
- Frugal Gardening – This is a series across three blogs that has great info for gardening on a budget.
I hope to share my garden’s progress with you over the next few months and hopefully I won’t be sharing too many failures! *fingers crossed*
Are you planting a garden this year? What are you growing?
23 Comments
Charlene @ A Virtuous Woman
I just started a raised bed last fall, and added a second one this spring. I get a little confused at times about the differences between conventional gardening and using a raised bed (i.e., plant spacing, etc.) , but I love how much easier it is than tilling, making rows, weeding, etc. I need to check out some of your resources!
Stephanie
@Charlene @ A Virtuous Woman, I get overwhelmed by all the info about gardening – it is a SCIENCE! I’m more of a throw some seeds in the ground and pray something grows type of person but this year I researched a little more – hopefully it pays off!
Eddita
@Charlene @ A Virtuous Woman, When I think of “conventional” I think of my Dad pulling out the tiller and spending hours getting the soil ready. “Raised Bed” on the other hand is what the name implys. Building a frame and then filling with soil and nutrients for planting. What is nice about the second method is that you never have to worry about the soil compacting because you do not walk on it. For that reason it is easy to weed. Also if you divide into equal square foot sections, it you create a 4″x4″ box, you can then plant 16 different items. One year, in that little area I grew 4 brussell sprout plants, 3 green beans, 2 squares with 9 onions each, 2 broccoli and 1 cauliflower. I always plant herbs in small planters as well as my tomatoes though you can easily plant in the same way as above depending on how much space you have. Good Luck!
Phoebe @ GettingFreedom
My family inhales fresh fruit/veggies, too! I love it, but man alive does it get expensive. Thank heavens for a yard to garden in. 🙂
Thanks for linking up to our Frugal Gardening Series!
Stephanie
@Phoebe @ GettingFreedom, I know, our yard isn’t huge but I’m thankful that I have some space for my garden beds! It will save us so much money this year!
Katey
We are SFG too! And we changed to real food…trying anyway! Glad I found your blog…looking forward to reading more!
Stephanie
@Katey, Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Jessy
After my oldest son took a Square Foot Gardening class, we’ve been doing it! It’s lotsa of fun for the kids…and they snack off of it from mid-June through the end of September!
Stephanie
@Jessy, My kids are really into gardening too! I can’t wait until they get to eat the first things that grow!
Andrea @ The Greenbacks Gal
I’m a first year veggie gardener too! Do you think we’ll have the same enthusiasm in, say, August?
Stephanie
@Andrea @ The Greenbacks Gal, Oh, I really really hope so! LOL
Eddita
@Andrea @ The Greenbacks Gal, The big thing I think is to go out once a week and weed. Sometimes if you let it get out of control you can easily become overwhelmed. Make sure you add fertalizer and that your garden gets a good drink if you go through a dry time. At the end of the summer once you see all that you have grown and all of the $$ you save you will be excited! 🙂
Staci Bishop
We are gardening for the 1st time this year and I’m so excited. Plus, we are off to a really good start. Meaning, I haven’t killed anything yet. Yay! I picked the most common ingredients that I use in the kitchen and that is what I planted. We’ve got an assortment of herbs, broccoli, onions, peppers, tomatoes and strawberries. We are working to add potatoes as well. So far, garlic has been the easiest and least expensive since it grows from its own cloves. 🙂
Stephanie
@Staci Bishop, LOL – you are doing better than I am then – I’ve already killed quite a few of my transplants (I’m terrible with transplanting plants I’ve started indoors!). I did the same thing – chose to plant the veggies/herbs we eat most!
Eddita
@Staci Bishop, We planted potatoes last year for the first time in an old plastic recycle box our city was no longer using (we had been moved up to the big curbside kind on wheels). Hubby drilled lots of drainage holes and then we filled it up with dirt. Super simple, take a couple that have started to sprout and cut apart. Each one of those sections will become a new plant. Plant about 4″ down and then feed water and leave alone. Once the greenery dies you know that you are ready to harvest. Just pour out on a drop cloth and voila! TONS of potatoes!
There are tons of good videos on the subject on you tube. They are the easiest plant I think to grow. We have about 6 plants growing right now…YUM!
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=growing+potatoes+in+containers&aq=1&oq=growing+pota
Eddita
I have been square foot gardening for over 20 years. It is amazing how much food can come out of 4 square feet. This year my husband planted one box of bush beans so that we could get a good bounty for canning. I also plant tomatoes in planters around our little yard and can put up a lot of sauce and ready made foods like chili for those cold winter nights.
Good Luck with it!
Stephanie
@Eddita, That is a good idea to plant a lot and can them! I’m hoping to just have enough to eat this year and then maybe next year expand with the intention of canning some.
tessa
Just installed 5 raised beds after reading SFG! So far we have planted tomatoes, peppers,carrots,spinach, peas, squash and herbs. We’re soooo excited and hoping for a big harvest! Also made several rain barrels and with last nights’ storm, all 3 of the 55G’s are filled!! Woo Hoo!! Good luck with your garden!
Stephanie
@tessa, Wow!! Good luck with your garden as well! 🙂
GinaJ
We just built raised beds, too! Unfortunately the “top quality vegetable soil” we got is anything but top quality. Everything is struggling, even after fertilizing. I just added MicroLife, in the hopes that that would help. We’ll see! So far, I have struggling cucumbers, beans, watermelon, zucchini, carrots, radishes, tomatoes….Stuff comes up, and even flowers, but the plants look sickly.
Stephanie
@GinaJ, Oh no! 🙁 Do you have some compost you can add to it?
Jean
I gardened for many years and two years ago switched to square foot gardening because of yard space issues. I love it. I hope it’s as successful for you as it has been for us! One tip: I don’t know if this is a problem where you live, but bunnies devour our garden if we don’t fence them out.
Stephanie
@Jean, We built a fence to keep the garden safe from our dog so I hope it protects it from bunnies too! LOL