Garden 2011

Last year I started a garden. It was a small 10 foot space in the backyard with a few tomato and pepper plants. I also had a small vineyard off the side of the yard stretching about 30 to 40 feet down with 2 rows, having about 10 grape plants. The grapes were bought as little sticks in a bag, with the instructions saying that they were just "dormant" and that throughout the season they would grow into full producing grape vines. Well, the bag lied. All season I just had little sticks in the ground. My pepper plants were eaten down to almost nothing by my geese, and the tomato plants, although they did produce tomatoes, didnt give us hardly anything until AFTER the producing season was over, and they were all bite size tomatoes. On the bright side, they were REALLY good bite size tomatoes.

Well this year, we decided to try it again, and learn from our mistakes. First, my husband fenced off a 40 foot by 80 foot area for the new garden, and we spread out weed killer over the whole thing. In February my husband had a friend from work bring out his tractor and till it up, and all we had left to do was wait for the last frost to be over.

We figured we'd be planting in March, so I began to prepare. We bought all kinds of seeds, and I planted them in mini greenhouses and kept them indoors. The seeds I planted were: pumpkin, watermelon, cucumber, cantelope, carrots, eggplant, squash, lettuce, banana peppers, corn, and sunflowers. We also bought onion bulbs and seed potatoes. Plus, my husband surprised me with tomato plants, a variety of pepper plants, more grape sticks, and some blueberry plants (that were really just bigger sticks). I was super excited when my seeds all began to sprout out into tiny seedlings, then they grew and were green and pretty and started getting true leaves on them... by the time March came around they were getting a bit too big for their little peat pots.

The weather had warmed up, so we went ahead and planted the tomato plants, the onion bulbs, and the pepper plants in their own rows in the garden, and we planted the grape sticks in the vineyard and the blueberry sticks in a big 4 foot container where my old garden had been. The blueberries and grapes had little green buds on them, and the tomatoes and peppers were looking good. Thats when things started going downhill.

It seemed like almost overnight the pepper plants started to look smaller. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that they were being eaten. The tomato plants were dying all on their own. The little green buds on the blueberries and grapes disappeared as if they, too, were being eaten. It didnt take long to find the culprit: rabbits. Cottontails were hopping right into the garden (which had been fenced off with barbed wire to keep out the horse, goat, and llama) and eating my peppers. I bought small animal repellent and spread it all over the garden. Think it made a difference? Not a bit. It was like all I had done was put seasoning on their food. They kept right on chomping away. So we did the next best things we could do: we bought some garden fencing to keep out the rabbits, and in the evening our new hobby was rabbit hunting. We saw a little bit more being eaten off the peppers (there are still a few spots along one fence they can still get in), but a few days later my husband got 3 rabbits in a row! After that it seems like the eating has slowed down to nothing. So my garden is pretty safe from the rabbits now. Of course, the tomatoes still died. Only 7 of the tomato plants miraculously came back to life, and we even bought more tomato plants, but they all died too. So we have just 7 tomato plants out there, in an 80 foot long row. Really demotivating. Today my husband came home from work with a whole bunch of different types of tomato seeds. Hoping to have better luck with the seeds than with the actual plants.

On the bright side, while all this sadness and frustration was going on, my onion bulbs all sprouted and are now currently at least 6 to 8 inches tall. Very proud of my little onions.

Then the seedlings. I was thrilled and amazed to watch all these little seeds sprout up and grow out into little seedlings. Unfortunately, they didnt like getting moved outside. They all very quickly withered and died. All that time, the weeks that I put into them, the pride I had in them... all flushed down the drain in a matter of days. I felt so useless as a gardener... nothing I was planting was growing and when it did grow, it was only a futile effort before it died. I almost gave up right then. But seeing the onion bulbs sprout up gave me some hope. It made me realize that maybe what the garden needed was more nature and less me. I mean yes, it needs a bit of me, but I can't control it all. It a natural thing and I needed to let it do what it wanted. So I took more seeds last weekend and planted them straight into the ground in their respective rows in the garden. The only things I kept saplings of is eggplant and banana peppers. I have 8 rows out there. Here's what I planted:

Row 1: Sunflower seeds
Row 2: Corn seeds
Row 3: Squash seeds, lettuce seeds (and a space at the end for the eggplant saplings)
Row 4: Pepper plants (with space at the end for the banana pepper saplings)
Row 5: Onion bulbs
Row 6: Tomatoes (all but 7 died, but as I mentioned we got seeds today so I can plant them)
Row 7: Seed potatoes, carrot seeds, garlic cloves (from the kitchen, lol)
Row 8: Cantelope seeds, cucumber seeds, watermelon seeds, pumpkin seeds

Now for the grapes and blueberries. The blueberries are right in the backyard. Three of them were tiny little plants, with a few leaves, and two of them were a bit larger with green buds all over them. All the little buds disappeared. I thought maybe it was from being transplanted, and the buds grew back in a few days. But then they disappeared again. This time, as they grew back, I watched them more carefully. My yard chickens were eating the green as it appeared, before it even had time to open into leaves! We're still in the process of putting up a wire fence around them, but they are both fighting against the chicken attacks by producing about a million little green sprouts all over them... I have so much respect for these two blueberry plants. Until they grow into actual bushes, we happened to notice that Walmart has blueberry bushes that are already huge and grown out, covered in flowers already! So we bought 2 of them and planted them next to the vineyard. They are currently growing well and healthy. The grapes were also getting green buds, but just as they opened into bright green leaves, they were being eaten off. We discovered that last year the grapes were being eaten by the cows, so this year before they were even planted we put up a two-strand barbed wire fence around them. It kept out the larger cows, but not the calves. So we put up a third strand, and no cows have set hoof near my vineyard since. Unfortunately the grapes were still being eaten on. It wasnt until a week or so ago that I watched 3 rabbits hop right up to my grape sticks. Hubby took care of them :) then we put wire cages around each of the grape sticks, which I am proud to say all have pretty green leaves on them and are doing wonderfully. I have real hope for the grape sticks this year, and with a little luck these same grape sticks can earn the title of actual grape vines.

Today I bought some larger peat pots for the eggplant and banana pepper seedlings, and am transplanting them after I'm done posting this. I went out into the garden earlier this afternoon and am happy to report that I have lots of seeds already sprouting up from the ground: sunflowers, corn, squash, lettuce, cucumber, and pumpkin. Plus, my onions are all still doing amazing, my 7 tomato plants are still growing well and I plan on planting the tomato seeds sometime this week, and all of my pepper plants grew back from the stems with lots of little leaves growing all over them. It's all growing and nothing is currently eating them. FINALLY! All I have to do is make sure they get the water they need.

We also bought 2 hanging strawberry baskets with seeds, and the seeds are due to be sprouting sometime later this week. And if I ever forget that I really can make things grow, I have an Ivy in the house that has been growing faster than a weed (and very healthy and green) and I have 3 curly willow branches that came in a flower bouquet that grew roots and are now beautiful little mini willow trees. I'm already in the process of "hardening" them, transferring them from indoor plants to outdoor plants. Once they're outside and growing in full sun, they should go through a real growth spurt. Once they're at least three feet tall, We can plant them in the ground.

Well, that's what I'm growing and how it's going. I look forward to updating you on the garden growth as things really start to grow. This week I'm going to weed out the garden as well, since it's been long enough that some weeds have started popping up. If you start your own garden, I hope you have better beginner's luck than I did, but if you've learned anything from reading this post it's that you cant give up. Keep on trying, and learn from your mistakes, and you can grow anything! :)