Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Novice Gardening: the first year

I spent half of my childhood in the [somewhat] country, where my parents still live, raise chickens, and have an enormous garden.
(this wedding photo was taken on the road where my parents' house is)

(Yes, that was just an excuse to show a wedding photo)

For years my dad has maintained a huge prosperous garden that fed our family and many other people.

When I realized we'd have a little plot in our backyard for a garden, I was pretty excited. I thought I'd be a chip off the old block.

I checked out a stack of library books on english, herb and vegetable gardens and imagined a backyard oasis that was lush and fruitful. (I was also inspired by Anita and The Pioneer Woman)

Well, things never worked out quite how I imagined them.

Last spring after clearing and hoeing the area, I decided to just start by planting half of the area with vegetables and sprinkle wildflower seed over the other half. I tilled, mixed in garden soil for the nutrients and planted.
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one month later:
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Then I watered, worked, and waited. And started to realize how very little I knew about gardening.

My plants were taking forever to grow, producing little, and generally looking sad and pitiful, and bug-bitten, but I could never find the bugs!

(Well, everything except for the zucchini--that went crazy.)

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After a meager harvest, in the heat of late summer they were scorched and most died.

I got discouraged and started going to the farmer's markets on the weekend. It was so much less time & work, and I could get food that was organic, locally grown and not too expensive. But I was feeling bad about my failure, so I didn't rule out another go.

Gardening is so time consuming! Do you have a garden? is it worth it?

5 comments:

Layla said...

I can't keep anything alive, seriously. I would love to have a garden, but like you said, it's a lot of work. I feel okay about buying produce from local gardeners, because at least then they're being supported. No shame in that!

steph c said...

I can't wait until we have a place where we can have a full garden!

We have a little herb garden right now, planted in a window box on our balcony. We have tried basil, rosemary, dill, thyme, and catnip. Honestly? Only the basil and catnip thrived. We're trying mint this year as well.. so we'll see how it goes! Gardening is def hard work, though. Hopefully this year will go better for you..?

cailen ascher said...

how fun! i should really start a veggie garden - i know it would get good use. thanks for the inspiration!

ps i'm your newest follower : )

Unknown said...

i wish i had a plot of land to garden in! i would if i could!

xoxo

Unknown said...

I don't have a garden because we don't have much room and our entire backyard is shaded by two huge oak trees...but if I were guaranteed gorgeous veggies it would be so worth it! I'm with you though...I'll just have to make my way to the farmer's market! :)

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