2011 Garden Wrap-Up

My total harvest for 2011:



Yes, that’s right, just nine little pea pods. And not too healthy-looking, in my opinion! But they tasted all right, so, I guess they were still okay!

So this year was a bit of an experiment, and I know I started the garden way too late, and without having any knowledge at all of how to grow anything. Now, I’ve done some more reading, and chatting with folks who have done extensive vegetable gardens, and I’m starting to learn some tips and get an idea of how to have a better haul next year! I’m currently picking out seeds for my 2012 garden. . . Because despite all the experienced folks telling me to buy a flat of plants and not bother with seeds, I just have to go and make life more difficult and insist on starting from seeds. . . It just seems more magical to know that I grew something from just a tiny seed in the palm of my hand!

I grew something!!!!!

Look what I found in my garden the other day!



And only a couple of days later, I have a whole bunch of them! I am so lucky that this year we've had a really good September/October. Usually, I am FREEZING by this time of year, but it's been very mild, and I think there's a chance I just might get a tiny bit of edible goodness out of this garden this year after all!

My Pathetic Garden

My poor garden. This season, I've dealt with bugs, a hurricane, and feline predators. . . And at present, I have about a half dozen large tomatoe plants, two cherry tomatoe plants remain, a half dozen pea plants, and two pumpkin plants. From these, I have so far yielded zero edible items, and will be yielding a grand total of zero edible items this season. All of these were started too late in the season (the pumpkins, especially so, and were really only planted because I felt bad to throw away all the seeds). To add to that, it took me forever to get them outside, mostly because I didn't know how to handle the fact that on the first day that I set them outside, I lost several plants - ENTIRE PLANTS - to bugs. Looking back, and knowing now how long it takes a plant to grow and yield a vegetable, I probably should not have even bothered with this garden this year. Well, lessons learned. I now realize the following:

1. The seeds for next year's garden should be started, like, maybe next month, if they are to be ready to yield anything edible.

2. They need to be transplanted outside at the earliest possible moment.

3. The moment they are transplanted, they need to be doused with chemicals, and then be sprayed again every couple of days for the entirety of their lives.

4. I really need a functional hose or a larger watering can because going in and out eleventy billion times with the tiny watering can blows.

5. Gardening can be a huge, depressing, disappointing waste of time, and I need to not become emotionally attached to my little plant babies, or overly hopeful that it could actually work.

That said, my garden did come a long way in the past month. Here it is one month ago:



And here it is today:



If only it could have grown that fast to begin with, and not spent THREE MONTHS growing from a seed to where it's at in the first picture! Ridiculous! How does anyone grow anything in this state where we're lucky if we get three warm months a year?!?

*sigh*

Better luck next year, I hope!

The bad and the good. . .

I had my very first gardening tragedy the other day!



Two of my tomato plants vanished, and a third laying on top of the soil instead of in it. This is what comes of putting them on a windowsill within the reach of cats. :(

Thanks to the comment by Karen Anne on my last post, I knew roots can grow out of the stem if I bury it, so I gave it a shot. . . And I think it worked! It's been a few days now, and my little trooper appears to be going strong!



And it's not like I have a shortage of tomatoes because I additionally planted some more seeds a few days ago - this time for larger tomatoes - and when I went to check on them this morning, they had sprung up!





I hope my garden will be big enough for all these tomatoes! We just went to Home Depot the other day to buy the wood to build it, and I'm going with a larger size than originally planned after my Dad said I needed more room for these guys! We'll see how it goes. . . I'm hoping to build the garden this weekend!

Transplanted!

I moved my little cherry tomato babies to their own containers! I have been totally petrified to do this, worrying I would kill them, and so I've been stalling. . . And it turned out to be a good thing because suddenly, two more plants popped up! So now I have eight.

I thought for sure when I went to transplant them they'd have long roots, all tangled around one another, but I was surprised to find they had only short roots and they pretty much fell apart in my hands. So I put some nice potting soil in each container, and then one plant per container (along with some of the soil they were in - trying not to shock them too much!) and watered them and talked to them. (Yes, I'm trying everything!)



I hope they will make it! I'm a little nervous because they seem very floppy. I did my best to support them with a bit of extra soil, and watered around and not on them. We'll see how it goes!



I also started some larger tomatoes today (I know, I am so late to be starting these, I'm sure!) and hope I'll have as much luck as I am with these cherry tomatoes (so far). I'm dying to start my peas but they say to start them directly in the garden, and as yet, my "garden" is still my window sill. I will resolve that by next weekend at the latest. If I can't figure out how to build my own, I know my local Home Depot has a raised garden kit (basically, the wood pre-cut!) that I could probably build by myself.

I'm really enjoying this gardening thing! There's something very rewarding about this "growing things" thing! ;)

Jenni starts a garden!

I have a friend who gardens and it got me interested, and I started saying stuff around the house like, "maybe I should try this!" The problem is, I don't historically have the best of luck with gardening!

So the Easter bunny brought me a very Jenni-size garden in my basket:



I planted them, not really thinking I'd have much luck since I never get seeds to grow, but much to my surprise. . .



I can already see my first gardening mistake, which was to plant all the seeds instead of the "2-3" they recommended. I figured, with my lack-of-success rate, I should plant them all and maybe I'd get one or two. What I ended up with are eight! The half dozen you see in the picture, plus two more that came up a bit later. Now I'm worried I won't be able to spread them out as they are too close together! I've got to tackle the transplanting tonight. . .

Meanwhile, inspired by my success, what was going to be "just a little joke of a garden" has turned into plans for an actual real garden!



Bigger tomatoes, peas, and proper soil to start them in! I also managed to find some of those planting pots that you can put right in the ground at a discount store, so I'm going to give those a go. My next challenge is going to be building a raised garden somewhere in my backyard to transfer these guys to!

I want to babble on endlessly about my gardening adventures (or misadventures, as they may well turn out to be!) but didn't want to make my non-gardening sewing buddies sit through it, so, a new blog is born. . .