gardening

I haven’t updated you on our garden this year since 6 weeks in, at the end of May.  And there’s a reason.  The garden has been WIMPY this year.

The garden was happy when the rain started but by July with the weeks and weeks of rain and little sun, it was just done for.

Here is our garden not too long ago:

The big boy tomatoes have all been small and not in very good shape. I only was able to make salsa ONCE and even then it was not very good.

We’ve had a few peppers but without the tomatoes to make salsa, they’ve almost been a waste.

My zucchini plants died early on.  I think I only got 2 or 3 zucchinis out of it.

The cucumber plant never seemed to really pick up.  I got 2 or 3 very strange looking cucumbers.

My parsley plant I’ve had since last year rotted out.

The one bright spot is the cherry tomato plant has been giving us a steady stream of tomatoes all year.  Scott eats them like candy and we’ve been able to give several small bags away.

Overall, I’m happy we did it again.  I still love to watch the process but this was definitely nothing like last year. 

A good reminder, though, that some seasons will be plentiful while others are lean and a lot of that has nothing to do with what we control.  Same place, same plants, same gardener but different weather.  To add some life to our garden, I got this porch swing so our visitors could enjoy being outside.  Our hope lies in the fact this season, whether literal and figurative, will be over soon and we can give it another go.

If you have one, how did your garden do this year?

In case you weren’t around last year at this time, I planted my first summer garden. 

People that know me well know that I do NOT have a green thumb.  One year, Emma gave me a begonia for Mother’s Day and said Mom, do not kill this one!

Against all odds, the garden last year was wildly successful. It was one of my favorite adventures yet.  If you want to catch up on some of the posts, check out the posts in the Gardening Category.

As a quick update from the last post there, my carrot seeds did grow through the winter and I just picked the last 6 or 8 carrots last week.  So awesome being able to pick a carrot and use it a soup.

So, this weekend we planted this year’s summer garden.

It was a quick affair this time. The raised beds were done, the soil was in.  I just weeded it a bit and turned the soil, adding a bit of peat moss.  I have no idea if that’s what I was supposed to do or not—please don’t consider me an expert quite yet.

We went last Saturday morning and got $30 of starter plants—I only include the price so you can see how affordable it is compared to the amount of produce you receive once you have the initial beds ready.

We laid the plants out in their containers.

And then Emma and I planted them while Lexi opted to play photographer.

Bella helped where she could—mainly providing the cute factor.

And here is the official “before” picture for the year:

It’s hard to tell what’s what, so here is the layout:

Overall, I have less plants than last year.  The garden was a jungle.  I really would like to add a 3rd box next year.

What I added more: jalapeño peppers

What I cut back on: tomato and zucchini (holy tomatoes and zucchini, Batman!)

New things I’m trying:  Grape tomatoes and cucumber

Things I didn’t bring back: Broccoli and lettuce, which I didn’t think had a great return on money for us.

My one concern for this year is that since last summer we replaced our fence with the 6’ privacy fence.  Tucker kept jumping the 4’ picket fence.  Tucker!

The back line which has all the tomato plants don’t get nearly as much sun so it will be interesting to see if they are as productive as last year.

I just can’t explain how awesome it was to see everything grow. 

If you need some extra inspiration, be sure to check out this post where I talk about the film East of Eden. I might have to give it another viewing myself.

Overall, I’m super duper excited to see how it turns out again and highly suggest anyone to give it a try. 

Do you garden?  Have you planted yet?

Can you believe it’s already been a month since my last garden update?  I almost didn’t do another one because I didn’t think the garden had changed much but um, wow.  You’ll see in a minute it has.

When we planted:

Month 1:

Month 2:

And now, Month 3:

So, um, yeah.  The tomatoes and zucchini are going kind of nuts (sorry the coloring is weird.  It had just rained and the sun was going down when I took these).

The squash on this side is about 3 feet outside of the box and just hangs over it.

The tomatoes are using the fence and are growing outside of our yard.

I look at this picture and cannot believe it is me.  I grew vegetables, ya’ll.  My aunt over the weekend said, “Who would have thought you would have a garden?”  Not me, folks!

Emma was so impressed with this perfect little tomato tonight.  It had gotten blood red hidden at the very bottom and back.  

You wouldn’t know it, but I still have jalapeno peppers, green peppers, basil, marigolds and parsley growing underneath all that too. 

We’ve been using up the zucchini by making chocolate zucchini bread, zucchini cakes, and sautéed zucchini and onions.  So far with the tomatoes, we’ve done tomato sandwiches and tomato slices for July 4th cheeseburgers.  I’ve gotten more basil and parsley than I can keep track of and at least 6-8 jalapeno peppers to make jalapeno poppers.  I’d say the investment of about $35 in plants has been well worth it.

I say it every time I write an update, but I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed my little garden.  It’s just enough to keep me busy but not overwhelm me.  I love fussing over the tomato plants and getting them tied up correctly and watching the zucchini nearly grow before my eyes.  I love to trim back the parsley and basil.  I’m turning into a little garden geek.  I LOVE IT.

I’m really bad at plants.  Emma got me a plant for Mother’s day two years ago and said, “Don’t kill this one.” It’s why this gardening thing is so fascinating to me. It feels nothing short of a miracle when I pick something out of the garden and then feel comfortable enough to actually stick it in my mouth.

One thing that seems most elusive is growing a plant from a seed. For my garden, I got starter plants. I figure the worst part is behind me and I had a good running start to the whole business.

There was one plant though that I couldn’t find a starter plant for, so I had to buy the seeds. I hemmed and hawed over buying them, sure it would be a waste of money. *I* couldn’t do that. I had failed before I even started.

I broke down the other week and bought the seeds. I let them sit on the counter for a while. Why even try? Do I want to feel like a failure? I don’t need any more confirmation that I can’t keep a plant alive, much less start a new one.

I got brave a few days ago and stuck the seeds an inch of soil in an extra pot I had. I watered it, making sure it was wet like I’d heard. And then I sort of gave up hope. It will never come up, but just in case I’ll water it some. At least I can say I tried. I’ll just prove what I know though…even when I try, I fail.

Lo and behold, two days later green stuff started coming up. And with a vengeance. I’d go to sleep and the next morning it’d be another inch higher. I could have sworn it was magic beans I’d planted. Magic beans that actually grew when *I* planted and watered them.

Do you ever feel like that about something in life? You’re just sure you’re going to fail? You’ve always failed in the past and you’d really like for it to go well but you just know you’re not good enough? Sometimes we’ve failed before we’ve even tried. Most of the time, our efforts are only half-hearted. We try just enough to check a box that we did it, but only to prove that it wasn’t worth trying to begin with.

But can I suggest you can do it? Whatever your “it” is. Sure, you might need to put a little more effort in or learn something new or get some help but you can. You really can.

OK, can we talk about my garden?  The last four weeks have been producing nothing but large question marks over my head.  The garden.  It keeps me humble.  While I am SO GLAD I planted this year, not everything is coming up roses, er, zucchini.  Let’s take a look.

This is the before, exactly one month ago:

And this is 30 days later:

So yes.  There’s some growing going on.  Let’s talk about the good growing first.

As you can see the broccoli there on the left is kind of out of control.  Zoomed in it sort of looks like a forest.

You can see from the side here that the tomato plants at the fence are all getting pretty big too. 

We’ve got some blooms where some tomatoes will come in and that is so exciting.

You can barely see it but the parsley just beside the tomatoes is huge, the lettuce is doing well and even the marigold down in there is flourishing. I’ve had a few salads from the lettuce and used fresh parsley in my meatloaf last week (WHO AM I, PEOPLE?)

My favorite part about the whole garden so far is my jalapeño peppers.  They’re just so cute and I can’t wait to stuff them with cheese and wrap them in bacon.

Now let’s talk about the bad.  This right bed is pretty empty, huh?

The only thing we can figure out is that either I put too much fertilizer in or didn’t mix it up well enough because all the leaves are either turning brown or it’s totally killing the plants.  I killed the zucchini, cilantro, marigold, and basil plants and my green bell pepper is not far behind.  Since the other bed is nearly identical aside from the fertilizer and because of the symptoms, fertilizer burn is only thing I can figure.  I’m planning to remove the soil and mix in fresh since we have a few bags left over.  I think the whole thing is odd because I thought I used much, much less than he recommended.

In the left bed, the squash plant is not doing well either.

I have no idea what its problem is.

So overall, I have had *something* to eat from it already and it looks like I will have plenty more but it’s a little rough looking.

It’s been amazing though how much God has shown to me through the garden, even through the bad things.  Just today I finally decided to rip out the dying basil and zucchini and I just thought that’s God right there.  Sometimes we have things in our life that we keep tending and tending, hoping that it will find some life but eventually we know they just need to be ripped out and we need to move on.  Last week when my brain was going so crazy and I knew parts of the garden weren’t going well, he reminded just how much I don’t have it together.  Even when I do things in the moment that I feel are right, I just don’t know it all and can’t predict how it’s going to go. We do the right things and it still turns out poorly.  God is good, isn’t he?  I love when he can make all things, even the bad things, be for our good.  I might not get to eat squash casserole, but I’m drinking living water from my garden and I don’t think it’d be a stretch to say that’s priceless.