Creatin' in the Sticks: Our First Vegetable Garden

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Our First Vegetable Garden

First off, I've always thought my thumbs are black. I seem to lack the skills of a gardener. This year I've been determined to change that. I'm learning gardening 101 by trial, error, error again, look it up on the Internet, ask questions of green thumbers (why isn't that a word?), try it their way, error again, pull it up, plant something else, watch bugs enjoy, spray the crap out of things, plant again, error again, man it's working, and look on the Internet again. Experience seems to be the best learning tool of all. If failure breeds success, next year I should be off the charts.

We have fence around the garden to keep dogs and deer out. The birds seem to love it. They use the sprinkler as a bird bath and the worms are keeping them fed. We have strawberries in an old horse tank next to the garden. The birds ate my first strawberry, so we now have netting over the strawberries and we have harvested 2. YES 2 whole strawberries. lol

Garden June 3, 2012

I started with spinach, but the bugs really chowed down on it, so I pulled it up. I like spinach but not leaves with bug holes in them... I planted cabbage and broccoli which seem to be doing fine. I've planted tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow and green squash, peppers, dill, watermelon, and pumpkins. I have marigolds on one side, because someone told me rabbits hate marigolds. I thought it was worth trying to keep out the rabbits. OR I could just put the chicken wire I purchased around the bottom of the fence. I don't think there are any rabbits around here that could jump the 6 feet it would take to get over the fence.....

Our first harvest

The first thing we consumed from the garden this year was this itty bitty strawberry. Hubby and I split it. Tasty. That was June 3rd. Success. Oh yeah. This is what $15.00 worth of strawberry plants gets ya..........

Harvesting broccoli June 10, 2012

This morning I was out watering the garden and started wondering about the broccoli. It was starting to look ready. I checked this web site, "Gardening Know How" and learned we definitely needed to harvest it. The hot wind was taking it's toll and turning the broccoli yellow. I hate this wind!