Garden Lessons

It is the end of the hot weather growing season and time for my yearly lessons in gardening blog. I look forward to this blog each year.

At the end of last year I did learn that I can grow things in the spring and fall and not just the usual summer crops of tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini. I looked into it as well as companion planting. Unfortunately I missed out on buying seeds for fall planting because seeds come out late winter, like February or March, and are out during the spring. By the time summer rolls around the seeds start becoming harder to find.  

This spring I was smart about grabbing some seeds. I grabbed enough of the leafy green seeds to plant in the spring and the fall. I was talking to mom about what I was planning on planting in the spring and fall and she asked about the price of the raised garden beds and I found a really good deal on a 2 pack of the 12 foot by 4 foot by 1 foot garden beds that also had a coupon. I cancelled the first order and placed the second order. I had the same anxiety with the second two garden beds as I did the first two garden beds but I was also equally excited and it sparked some joy. Things started out well. I was able to get some leafy greens and carrots from the spring planting. I also bought some more pots and trellises from Dollar Tree.

I donated some blood earlier this year and got an e-gift card and I used that money to buy some seeds on etsy from a shop that I have bought from before. I bought some of the seed starting cups and cat litter boxes from Dollar Tree, and some seed starting dirt from Walmart and labels from Amazon. One of the lessons I learned was that the cat litter boxes needed some holes in them or else it flooded when it rained and the cups with the seed starting dirt would fall over and the dirt and the seeds would come out and that I was better off just putting the cups in the garden bed for better drainage. I’ll know that for next year. Since the litter boxes flooded I had to start over with the seeds that weren’t already sprouting. I want to find bigger bags of the seed starting dirt for next year. 

Here are some of the lessons I learned from my summer crops. One is that marigolds bought from Walmart or Elijah’s high school didn’t grow well and ended up dying. It’s no fault of the store or high school. It just didn’t transplant well for me. The marigolds that I planted directly in the garden beds grew so much bigger and better. The purple basil that I planted last year in the Dollar Tree pots did not grow for me at all and they kept dying. It’s no fault to the the Dollar Tree pots or the purple basil plants that I bought at the store. This year I started the purple basil plants from seeds and put them in the garden beds and they grew so much bigger and better. All of my basil plants grew so much bigger in the garden beds. They had more space to grow unless of course they were the ones hiding within the tomato plants. This year I had several tomato plants that grew to be taller than Elijah and he’s 6 foot tall. I got so many cherry tomatoes this year. I am still trying to figure out why my larger tomatoes didn’t produce large tomatoes. I got a couple of the white tomatoes but they were on the smaller size. I’m not complaining. I was looking forward to sandwich size tomatoes. I was able to make a pot of spaghetti sauce in the crock pot using the cherry tomatoes from the garden and some of the herbs. Every year I have struggled to get large sandwich size tomatoes to grow in my garden. I have so much more basil this year than in previous years because I didn’t plant them in the pots but rather than in the garden beds. I went a little overboard on the basil because I had the space. I was originally just going to plant all herbs in the garden beds because I was drained and tired and lacked joy. By getting the two new garden beds I had my spark of joy back and remembered why I loved gardening. 

I was going to do a fall planting this year but life got in the way. In July I was admitted to the hospital. In August I had surgery. My garden took a big hit in July, August and September and I lost my spark. I have been taking iron pills, Vitamin C with Zinc and a multivitamin. It wasn’t until today, half way thru November, when I finally cleared my garden of the summer crops. I will save the seeds for spring and hope that the spark is there. I really do love gardening and the food that comes from it. I am going to see if it’s too late in the year to plant some of the leafy greens or if I should wait until spring to plant things. I was definitely looking forward to planting this fall.