This is such an exciting time of the year for gardening! If you haven’t planted anything yet, now might be a great time ;)
I’ve had some wins and lessons since the last update in April. I thought I’d break them down below. As always, if you’re interested in more garden content, I share about it more frequently through Instagram on @allaroundgoodness_ .
Recent garden wins:
Harvested our first strawberries! Well, my 1-year-old harvested most of them in their not-so-sweet state but still happy they grew well. (see photo at the end of this post)
We built and filled the second big garden bed. My husband built the second bed and I helped get it filled with soil and compost. I added some of my seedlings to it!
Harvested lots of cilantro and all the herbs are growing. Adding fresh herbs to meals has been so enjoyable :)
Added some starts to the garden: 2 types of tomato plants, 1 pepper plant, 1 basil, 1 rosemary, 1 thyme, 2 cucumber. I also saw a pretty cosmo at the nursery I couldn't leave behind. They’re all doing well.
Recent garden lessons:
All my leafy green seedlings either died or went to seed. I think the weather was mainly to blame.
Bugs. I had a lot of plants get holes and messed up leaves. As much as I wish I could leave the garden to do its thing, the bugs were getting excessive so I began neem oil treatments. Let's hope by the next update they're a little more under control.
Seeds take time. This one is obvious, but I quickly realized that without a greenhouse/greenhouse environment, most of my seedlings would take much longer to grow than I expected. I still have some very small tomato plants and herbs. Good thing is from what I understand, where I live the tomatoes being small at this point in the year isn’t that big of a deal, I’ll just a have a late summer/early fall harvest for those.
Costs add up quickly! The vision I have for this side garden is one that is full of plants, has vertical lushness, and it includes some beautiful pots sprinkled throughout my whole backyard (not just the side yard). We completely re-worked the space so it’s taken time and money. The beds themselves were built out of rather “cheaper” materials, but were filled with organic soil and compost. At 5-7 bags per bed, you can do the math. Although the costs associated with this makeover (and let’s be real, this new hobby) have continued to add up, it’s added so much value and GOODNESS to our lives. We go out to the garden multiple times per day, we enjoy picking herbs for our meals, and it’s a place where things are SLOW and PEACEFUL. We’re able to see God’s creation and design at hand and that’s been the best part.
To see where we started, you can take a look at previous field notes here: Field Notes: Spring is Here, Seed Updates and New Gardener Encouragement (APRIL) and Field Notes: Seed Starting 2023 (MARCH).
Thanks for coming along this journey with me!
