Gardenlog: Getting My Hands Dirty

Three months ago I shared my gardening plan for this year, and I’m here now to give updates on how it’s all been shaking out. Things got… a bit out of hand… But at least I’m finally getting my hands dirty! 🍓 🪱 🌱 🌼 🫛 🐜 🌷 ☘️ 🌱 🫐 💚 🐢 🌸 🐝 # Planting Sites There’s a few distinct zones where I have been planting things. Let me talk about each individually… - The main “Garden” 🌼 🍓 🍅 - The “Blueberry Patch” 🫐 🌿 🫐 - The “Orchard” 🍐 🌳 🍑 - The “Herb Garden 🪴 ## The “Garden” Let’s start with the main planting site / “garden” spot… In a previous log, I shared a picture of the rather barren and sandy (but sun-filled and hopeful) spot that I wanted to turn into a future garden bed. Well, now it looks like this! At first, my plan was to dig into the ground a bit so that any raised beds I put in would be slightly sunken into the ground. I thought this was a good idea at first mostly because I wanted to keep any plants/support structures a bit lower overall so they wouldn’t obscure sight lines from the screened porch. Ultimately though, digging into this area proved extremely challenging. This area was previously a patio and so was mostly fill dirt and matting underneath. Digging through it all was not easy. So after digging out some of the area I decided to fill it mostly back in and drop the raised beds on the top. At first, my plan was to have two 6x6 beds. I had a ~14’x6’-ish area to work with so that would give me two beds and some space in between. I got some feedback that this was a bad idea, and that it would be too annoying to reach all the way into a 6’-across bed. Of course I got this advice after I had purchased and cut the wood for two 6x6 beds. After doing some thinking and measuring, I determined that with the wood I had, I’d be able to pivot from two 6’x6’ beds, to two 3’x6’ beds and one 4’x6’ bed. All I needed was a circular saw to do some extra cuts. I borrowed one from the neighbor, and after a few quick cuts, was ready to assemble! After the beds were built, it was time to load ‘em up with soil. Look, I don’t know much about dirt if I’m being honest. Without thinking too much about it, my plan originally was to just load these three raised beds with your standard Miracle Gro garden soil and call it a day. But as it turns out, that’s maybe not what you’re supposed to do? From what I’ve read, Miracle Gro is more of a soil amendment and not really exclusively what you’re supposed to fill up a bed with and plant into. So I had to do some research. Let me tell you, there’s A LOT to learn and know about soil — soil composition, amending soil, raised beds vs. in-ground gardens, etc… After a bunch of internet searching, and calling local nurseries about dirt, I ultimately settled on this product that was available at Walmart. It’s not the cheapest thing, dirt… but I was able to purchase enough bags of this, plus source some local soil (from digging out holes for trees and such), and add in a few huge bagfulls of dead leaves from last fall to finally fill up the three beds. Yay! Let me stop here and say, the Gorilla Cart I purchased last year has been extrememly helpful for hauling all this soil, gear and plants around. The final product, and the site itself is great! It gets sun pretty much all day, which is a real stroke of luck because a lot of my yard is pretty shady thanks to the big trees and tall houses in my neighborhood. ☀️ In this photo: The nearest bed has an assortment of tomatoes and a single pepper plant. They are supported using a three-staked florida weave method. The next bed is seeded with cucumbers and cow peas. I used an A-frame trellis to support these. The farthest bed is the strawberry patch, which has now been covered with protective netting to keep those pesky squirrels out. ## The “Blueberry Patch” When I moved into this house, there were two blueberry plants already planted in a side garden (how lucky!). Since those have seemingly done well enough there over the years, and I have room to spare, I figured why not add more? So I’ve added three new plants (so far). From left to right, there’s a “Peach Sorbet”, “Jellybean” and “Sunshine Blue” varieties. I don’t know what the two larger original plant varieties are. There’s also a rather large blackberry plant hiding in the back. ## The “Orchard” There’s an area further back behind my house that is a bit more untamed, but quite sunny through the morning and into the afternoon (with shade in the later afternoon). Since it’s relatively spacious, I decided it could be a nice place for some fruit trees (if I’m lucky enough for them to grow here). So I picked up a couple peach, pear and plum trees and threw them in the ground! One of may li’l peaches that are already forming on this new tree. ## The “Herb Garden” On a whim I decieded to pick up a little raised planter and plop an assortment of herbs in there. Just for fun. Here’s what it looks like now… Shoutout to my wife for making all the fun little signs! As you can see I’ve got cilantro, mint, sage, thyme, rosemary and chives planted here. # Plant Shopping! So yeah, you can read about what I had planned to get… But you know, as one does, you get to the store with your li’l list in-hand but you walk out with a bunch of stuff that isn’t on said list. It happens! (Honestly I think I may have blacked out a few times. I just kept coming home with new trees and shrubs in the car… 😁) - 🍓 On my first shopping trip, I took my son. He’s not a big vegetable fan to say the least, and he’s even a bit picky about fruit sometimes. What he does love is strawberries. So, as I was trying to figure out how to arrange the three raised beds, I decided “why not”, I can turn one of them into a li’l strawberry patch. So I bought a strawberry plant. Later I realized that I can fit a lot of strawberry plants in a 6’x3’ space, so I went back to the store and bought 9 more. 🤗 I then finished up that bed with some chive seedlings and marigolds. - 🍅 There’s a lot to discuss on the tomato front. I grew cherokee purple heirloom tomatoes last year and they were bangers. So I got some more this year. But I also picked up a “golden jubilee” heirloom tomato because my son saw it at the store and “loves yellow”. This year I planned on doing some cherry tomatoes but hadn’t done much research into what variety specifically. So at the store I got a bunch of varieties. I’ve got “super sweet 100’s”, “husky cherry reds” and “sun sugar yellows” (again with the yellow…) - 🫑 My plan was to grow some kinda pepper. I got a “sweet bell yellow sweet pepper”. MORE YELLOW! 💛 - 🥒 🫛 : As planned, I got some cucumbers and cowpeas. Nothing new to report there. - 🍑 🍐 🌳 OK, let’s get into trees. Again, there’s a lot to discuss. Yes it’s true that I planned on getting a pear and a peach tree, but as things often turn out, it’s a bit more complex than just that. For starters, I grabbed an “elberta peach” and a “bartlett pear”. Cool! But y’know I’m at the store and I love plums. There happens to be plum trees for sale. What’s one more tree!? So I came home with a “ruby sweet” plum tree. Now… I’m at home on a video chat with my mom, walking her through my garden stuff and I explain to her the trees I got. She brings up that I need more than one of each tree for cross-pollination. Doh! I totally whiffed on this. The good news is, I get to go buy more trees. After some searching, I settle on a “santa rosa” plum, “anjou” pear and “red haven” peach to pair with my other three trees. Let me tell you, it’s fun jamming 8-9ft tree-lings up into a sedan 😅 - 🫐 My plan was to buy one more blueberry plant to pair with the two I already have. (Can you see a pattern emerging yet?). I am now the proud owner of three new blueberry bushes! The new varieties include “peach sorbet”, “sunshine blue” and “jellybean”. How delightful! - 🍋 🌿 One thing I really want to make this summer is a “garden salad”, consisting of only things I’ve pulled out of the yard. Courtesy of Peppa Pig (that my kids love to listen to), I had the idea to make a cucumber and tomato salad that also requires basil and lemon juice. So I got a lemon tree and some basil plants. Yum! - 🌸 🌻 🌺 For added whimsical spice, I wanted to grow some wildflowers in and around the property, so I picked up this mix. - 🍋‍🟩 At some point in all this craziness I went and got myself a key lime tree too 😁 - 🪴 To top it all off I set up the herb garden with an assortment of herbs too. # Planting Buying things is fun, and all too easy. Planting is a little harder. But keeping things alive is the real sport. Let me walk you through some of my (mis)adventures with getting things in-the-ground. I’m new to this whole gardening thing. I grew some tomatoes last year, but that’s about it as far as gardening/plant-growing experience goes. For each thing I’ve bought and then sought to put in the ground, I’ve been learning new things to consider… - Does it do well in my particular zone? - Will it get enough sunshine in the spot I want to plant it? - Does it do well in proximity to other specific plants? - How do I support the plant (i.e. think vined varieties)? - How will I protect the plants from diseases and critters? - Are there cross-pollination requirements? - Does the plant have special soil needs? - How should the plants be pruned to maximize growth vs. production, increase airflow, minimize diseases, etc… So yeah, there’s all this and I’m sure more to be discovered for me. Let’s talk about what I’ve done so far… - I got 10 strawberry plants put in a raised bed, with some chives dotting the perimeter and a few marigolds in the corners of the box. Nice! After a bit of research it seems like the spacing I went with should support that many plants in that size box. But we’ll see! The Marigolds are meant to help with luring pollinators and the chives help make good use of extra space. What I didn’t realize was that since these are fairly low-growing shrubs, the fruit will rest low and touch the soil. Well the soil is compost and dirt and such, so its recommended to lay something down on top of the dirt so that the fruit doesn’t get filthy. So I got some straw much to lay down. - I’m doing the cucumbers and beans from seeds. They’re supported by an A-Frame trellis. - To help bring in other pollinators, I got some borage and nasturtium seeds. I also have the wildflower medley. Pictured below is one of the wildflower sprouts! - I have limited options for protecting the trees out in “the orchard”. It’ll be years before they (hopefully) produce fruit anyways so I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. If the deer try to eat the small trees or their leaves I may have to figure something out though… # Adding to the Kit It wasn’t just plants I’ve been buying either. Here’s some new things I’ve added to the toolshed… - Pick Axe: Because digging in my area means a lot of big rocks and clay - Soil Knife: For all the versatility a tool like this brings - Rake: For spreading mulch and soil and such - Garden Gnome: He’s a good li’l buddy and a watchful eye at night 😁 # LOOKING FORWARD I’ve got my hands full with what I’ve gotten myself into this year. But that hasn’t stopped me from thinking about what’s next! - There’s an area in the back between the “orchard” and my schip laurels that I could plant a few things in. Not sure I’ll get to it this year though. - I’d like to get (buy or maybe build?) a plant bench that I can put on the side of my porch. I could put my lemon tree and any other future potted plants in there as it’s a pretty nice sunny spot. - I have plans to build my own potting bench! Soon. - I might just keep adding more and more blueberry plants to the blueberry patch. It’s quite sunny, spacious and I suuure do love blueberries 🤔 - My wife has been interested in composting for a while—that would work great with what I’m doin’ garden-wise. - We’ll see how the wild blackberries do this year. I’ve seen a bunch growing in the wooded area behind my house. I’ve been thinking about what I can do to help propagate them so I have more of a thicket of berries to munch on in the late summer. - I’ve got some watermelon and pumpkin seeds now. Ya never know what I might do with those… Thanks for reading and wish me luck!