Gardening For Beginners: Part 1

Garden 2024 did not go at all how I envisioned it. I pictured rows of corn with more beans than we could possibly eat to begin our new canning cellar with. I pictured hundreds of square feet of pumpkins of all varieties to be able to sell at my farm-stand. I pictured a beautiful border of calendula and marigolds and rows of the most beautiful flowers to make gorgeous arrangements with. An entire area of sunflowers would top it all off. Not to mention the flower garden itself: a beautiful start to my black garden filled with unique plants.

Literally not one of those things became a reality! Slugs destroyed the hundreds of pumpkin plants I put in the ground, deer jumped the fence to munch on all the corn. Rabbits, beetles, groundhog, deer, slugs - if it’s a pest it’s been in garden this year and I’ve had so little to show for my efforts it’s been incredibly sad, disappointing, frustrating. With that has come many lessons and with learning how to dealwith each of them this year (tho the efforts have come a little late) I’ll be prepared to handle it before it becomes a devastating issue next year - naturally.

It’s also made me think more of how to simplify my efforts. I don’t need to grow everything. I don’t need to grow it because it’s pretty or delicious. I’m beginning to focus now on growing a lot of a few - successfully. And from now on I’m not going to grow veggies or herbs from seed, for my own garden, any more. I used to think it was a badge of honor to say it was all grown from seed, but hey, if nothing grows than what’s the brag? I’ll be walking my happy butt to the garden center and make my life a fraction easier by buying already established veggie plants for most vegetables.

Not to say I won’t revert back in some ways, but given the size of the space, the size of my dreams and my vision for my property, we’ll give this a go for next year and try to not have these feelings I get whenever I go outside now.

Interested in creating a grow list for your own? Let’s go!