For a few years now, my husband and I have been gardening and what started out with just one small window bow grew into the garden we now have. Along this journey, we’ve learned so many lessons through trial and error. Our garden is not big by any means, but it is ours and we’re proud of it!
Disclaimer- I am a beginner gardener, so if you’re an experienced gardener you probably won’t learn anything new here. Regardless, welcome to our garden!
Why Garden?
There are SO many benefits to gardening!! Aside from the obvious benefit of reaping the harvest, gardening seriously improves our entire family’s life. First off, keeping a garden is a full-body workout. Have you ever weeded for even 10 minutes? It’s hard work. I definitely break a sweat while I’m pulling out weeds, which is a great way to detoxify. Next, tending a garden reduces stress levels. Cortisol goes down and Seratonin levels rise. Thirdly, gardening builds self-esteem because watching the seeds you planted grow and produce fruits and vegetables provides a powerful sense of accomplishment.
The best part of this all is doing this all together. My husband builds the raised beds and takes care of the irrigation. We plan it out all together and then my boys are constantly going to the garden for snacks. Gardening is the best way to have children eat vegetables!
What are we growing this year?
This year, we tried out some vegetables from the seed, such as cucumbers, beets, and kale. It turned out to be a success and we already harvested our beets and made our own borscht with them. The tomatoes and strawberries we bought them as little plants and they have been growing beautifully and producing fruit as well!
We covered the ground with this black cover to stop the weeds from growing. Then, we cut holes and planted the strawberries in three rows to have space to walk and collect the berries. We also placed our raised beds on top of that cover to stop weds from making their way into the garden space.
Tending the Garden
My husband set up the irrigation system for me, that way it gets watered regularly even when we go on trips. I still like to come out every day and check on the plants t make sure they are watered good enough. On days when it’s in the triple digits, I water in the evenings even if the garden was already watered in the morning.
Checking on the garden regularly also ensures that the weeds get pulled and the tomatoes get pruned. This is the first year that we’re pruning tomatoes and I think it helps the tomato plants grow better and produce bigger tomatoes!
We planted more cherry tomatoes because they are easier to grow from my experience. For some reason the larger tomato plants always get blossom end rot and don’t grow super nicely. This year, we tried putting Tums and crushed eggshells into the soil to prevent that from happening and I think it’s kinda working so far. Only half of the big tomatoes have the black spots. If you have any tips for this, we’d love to hear what you do to stop the end rot.
Wildflowers and Herbs
This year, I also threw some wildflower seeds into the soil and they have been coming up and I can’t wait to see them bloom. Soon I’ll be gathering my own cut flower bouquets for my kitchen! In our front yard, we also planted some zinnias and lots of herbs into this planter stand that my brother-in-law built. It’s so cute and it has been so fun to gather herbs when I am cooking meals.
Here we have two different kinds of basil, parsley, rosemary, chives, sage, thyme, and oregano. In our backyard, we also have a good amount of peppermint growing in the ground. It has been expanding like a weed. I’m not complaining though! It smells wonderful and we are enjoying refreshing drinks with the leaves!
Thank you for following along for my garden tour! We hope to continue growing as gardeners and expand with each year. If you like to grow vegetables, please let us know what you grow in your garden down in the comments below!
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