So, as a do-it-yourselfer, I figure it's really a shame that I don't grow my own veggies, right? I've tried several times in clueless fashion, but nothing has ever yielded anything remotely 'productive' (though Michael's had some pretty nice tomatoes in buckets this year). In fact, I've considered myself to have a 'brown thumb' of sorts...that's because my plants turn brown and die, rather than green and thriving!
Logically, though, I figure that it's simply a scientific formula, and that I need to study up and do it correctly...like following a recipe. Small things that I leave out (like salt in baking recipes), can completely ruin my efforts. So, as a beginner, I need to garden-by-the-book, so to speak.
Right! I veer from the instructions to a great extent, still, but I was inspired by my neighbor's garden to try a planter box. Michael graciously spent the weekend building it, and it is now planted with many starts and seeds. I'm quite dubious, actually, as to whether the seeds will actually grow, but I'm giving it a good-faith effort.
The planter box is 14 feet long and 4 feet wide, and it's only 8 inches deep or so. Starts include a few fairly big corn stalks, tomatoes, basil, red bell pepper, cucumber, and cantaloupe. We put in a couple of lantana to attract pollinators, and I transplanted a chive plant. Seeds include sunflower, kale, collards, cauliflower, lettuce, radish, cucumber, basil, oregano, and cilantro. We'll see if we get anything out of all of this!
I also transplanted a mint plant out front, in the flower bed. I hear they'll take over a garden fairly quickly, so I'm hoping that they actually do take over the area in which I set them out front, , but I didn't want them in my planter box for that reason.
That's my new enthusiasm for the week:) Let's hope I can maintain it for the whole growing season. Oh, and in the spirit of this being a 'science', I'm carefully notating locations and dates and notes in a composition notebook, so I can learn from this whole process!
By the way, one inspirational note was hearing that Moscow residents grow over 50% of their own produce within the city limits. I figure that if they can do it in their cold, space-restricted city, then I should be able to do it in a warm, sunny Georgia big backyard! Hopefully we'll be harvesting from the garden by the time the chickens arrive!
Microsoft brings you a new way to search the web. Try Bing™ now
No comments:
Post a Comment