Garden Update – June 5th

Welcome to my first real garden! In the past several years, I’ve tried growing various plants in pots, on an apartment deck, balcony, and even inside. Most attempts have been fairly unsuccessful, so the prospect of growing things in our own yard after buying a house was so exciting! Flowers are one of my favorite things in nature (our roses need their own post), but I also wanted to try my hand at growing actual food sources.

Our property is nearly a quarter acre , but much of that is a large front yard, and a concrete RV pad in the back. The grass area in the back yard looked like bare dirt when we moved in, but turns out there was some dormant grass, and we planted more new grass. We dug up part of that area to transform into the garden. It was a lot of work using a hand-tilling tool, which was needed to really break up the neglected earth and remove all the spring weeds. The soil is full of worms and bugs, which hopefully means it is rich and ready to grow things!

After clearing the dirt, I was left with a perfect rectangle of a garden space. We added bison manure, and then I planted probably a bit too ambitiously. I realized after the fact that things are way too close to each other, which is a lesson learned and motivation to create larger garden areas next year. I love the natural beauty of nature, and the satisfaction of hard work paying off. It is constantly changing, so I decided to document the progress a bit.

Without further ado, please enjoy this little tour of my humble first attempt at a garden.

My thoughtful husband came home from work one day, having stopped and purchased 12 tomato plants. I am SO excited to see what they might produce. Tell me all your favorite ways to use tomatoes! I love bruschetta (on homemade sourdough!) and salsa the most. All the tomato plants have flowers and are growing noticeably everyday. They’re early girls, and indeterminate, so could grow rather large. Hoping the cages help contain them! You can see to the left of the shed and along the fence how amazingly weeds do in our yard. That’s pretty much what we had to clear for this space.

Between the tomato rows, I planted two rows of carrots, realizing after that fact I have no idea how I’ll crawl around to reach them in the tomato jungle. Haha! I love how their growth is distinctly carrot-looking.

Also among the tomatoes: lots of basil and marigolds. Some creature sampled the basil today, unfortunately. I hope some makes it!

More marigolds on the other end. Aren’t the cute? The squirrels are rather bold around here, and I hope they don’t steal all the tomatoes. Maybe the marigolds will help? Any advice for protecting gardens from squirrels is welcome.

2 out of 5 summer squash germinated and are looking great! The seedlings I started inside became leggy and all died when transplanted.

Out of many cucumber seeds, we have one looking good, and another . . . slightly chewed? I’ll be curious to see if we end up having any fruit out of these. All the inside seedlings died too!

You can see a few groupings of jalapeno seedlings, going straight back from the sign (if you can find them with the random grass). You might have to play I-SPY to find the two marigold (?) and basil patches. Those must have been the last of the seeds I randomly planted, because I did not mark them and forgot I had planted them! A pleasant surprise.

Probably the most aesthetically pleasing part are the rows of spinach and arugula. Hoping some delicious summer salads are in our future!

This is an interesting study in a plant’s need for sunlight. The three outer zucchini were started indoors, became very leggy (I think due to lack of sunlight), and somehow survived outside so far. The one in the middle was directly sown outside. You can see how much healthier it looks! We have four other leggy ones and two outdoor-sown plants, and it will be interesting to see which ones survive. If I start seeds indoors again, they would need a grow light.

We planted this rosemary bush a while back, and it is loving the heat! It reminds me of an octopus how it is growing out. Beyond it are three rows of zinnias.

This baby blackberry start came from a neighbor (through our local Buy Nothing group, which is awesome!!). The main stalks are doing well after the transplant, and the smaller stalks seem to be dying off. The main ones are forming berries!

Lastly, here is a hilarious little sidekick of the garden. As we were preparing to move, a couple onions got too old in the pantry and sprouted. After a brief google search, I determined that yes, they could be planted. So I saved them. It was probably a couple months before I got them into the ground. They seem to be forming seed heads, so we’ll see what happens with those.

If you read this far, congratulations on making it! Working on the garden has been so life-giving to me lately. I usually take time over my lunch break to go pull weeds, water, and check on things – a perk to working from home. Our last frost date is around May 10th here in Idaho, which felt really late to get seeds in the ground! But I’d rather they be later than have all died. I started getting things in the garden 3 weeks ago, and did it gradually, so this is just 2-3 weeks of like for everything.

That’s it for now. Tell me all your favorite things to grow, and any tips you’ve learned!