Missy's Homestead - Gardening Lessons
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| Crazy Zucs |
Before I moved back to Sonoma County I had never had my own vegetable garden. I had some fruit trees in my backyard growing up but they didn't require a lot of work and I didn't pay much attention to what they produced. I also never had to water them. When I was living in my apartment in NYC I did have some herbs growing occasionally and for awhile I had a cherry tomato plant that grew very large and produced very little.
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| Tomatos, Lemon Cucumbers |
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| White Zebra Tomatos |
Since moving back to the West Coast I was determined to have a garden. As my avid blog readers might remember I did a post back a few months ago about building my own raise garden beds. That was a fabulous experience and now some many months later my garden is nothing to sneeze at. In fact I have zucchini coming out my eyeballs. I can't give it away fast enough. I guess that is what I get for planting 5 zucchini plants. I have several tomato plants that are going to explode at any minute and I am sure I won't be able to consume all of the fruit it gives me. So far this garden has been teaching me a few things about my gardening skills:
1. I always turn the water on too high.
I don't like to wait around of the water to slowly wet the dirt. But by turning on the water so high I inevitably erode away a lot more dirt from my plants which is not always good. Some of my pepper plants are getting pretty heavy and they need the dirt there for support.
Lesson learned: have more patience and turn the water on less.
2. Even though the plants look small when you transplant them, that does not mean that they will always be small.
I was so excited to plant all these vegetables that I didn't do as well on my spacial planning. One of my beds is pretty darn cramped and I could have done a little better job of planning out my beds. My squash plants choked out my leeks and some of my peppers. I ended up having to do some transplanting in order to save some of my plants.
Lesson Learned: Be aware of how much space your plants will actually take up.
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| I don't have a problem growing these! |
3. Don't be upset when things don't make it.
Some of my plants have not done as well as others. My cucumbers are not so fabulous and my onions and chard are also not as hot as my zucchini. Plus my artichokes really never took off at all. Every time something does not produce as well as another plant or something just fails completely I tend to take it very personal and worry about my gardening skills. I need to learn to relax slightly and just enjoy the growing process. Learn from my mistakes and look into why things might not have done so well. Some vegetables that I chose to plant were not such a perfect match to the climate where I live.
Lesson Learned: Choose plants appropriate for my climate and Season and learn from each garden I have.
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Beet. For awhile I thought I wasn't going to get any beets
until I realized that this was a beet and not some funny
looking chard. |
Okay that is all from the homestead. Remember to Buy More Consume Less and don't forget to check out our You Can Do This Campaign. Follow the link and find out how you can help Shelter Animals all around the country. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QrnTbmkU_U&feature=youtu.be
Until Next Time,
Missy
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| Crazy Gardener |
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