It started with a few seed packets and seed starter greenhouse kit.
When we moved into our new home, one of the prospects I was most excited about was starting a garden. Since we’d been living in apartments for years, it had never been much of a possibility. But with our fenced in yard, our garden was a go!
To begin, we purchased a seed starter greenhouse kit to get some seedlings started. As much as I wanted to go full force with a variety of vegetables and herbs, we decided to begin with only a few items to see if I can master growing them before branching out. So, we selected mixed bell peppers, poblano peppers, basil (we actually purchased small pots of these instead of starting from seed), and a variety of tomatoes. A few days after planting our seeds in the starter kit, we started to see sprouts!!!
Meanwhile, Justin readied our backyard with two garden boxes. We are actually going to be installing a third one shortly (two ended up being not enough!). Then, Justin installed a short fence around the perimeter of the boxes to (hopefully) keep animals out. We considered investing in a more “quality” fence, but since this is my first time gardening, we didn’t want to commit until I determined if I wanted to continue after this season. It works for now!
When our seedlings were a few inches tall, it was time to transplant them to the garden box! It’s hard to believe that these plants were ever so short…
I now have a morning routine – I walk out to the garden and look for new sprouts and blooms.
It is so exciting to see the growth – a lot can happen in 24 hours: it’s pretty incredible! Little by little, our tomato plants have really started springing up and growing like crazy! It’s insane! To be honest, I thought I would have killed most of my plants by this point…but they seem to be thriving!
It hasn’t been without some battles, though. We were overrun for a few days with some little black caterpillars…I had to fix that immediately. Thankfully, I got them under control before losing too many tomatoes (3 of them were eaten…darn it).
However, my basil harvest has been plentiful thus far! I prune off a handful or two of fresh herbs a few times a week – they just keep regenerating, and we’ve really been enjoying it in our meals.
Right now, we have some Early Girl tomatoes that are plumping up on the vine – one of them has started to turn red! Mr. Stripeys will be coming next…and hopefully my Cherokee Purple and Black Krim tomatoes will start to flourish. Just today, we got some blooms on our poblano plants! I can’t wait to see how they turn out…
Do you have a garden? What have you grown in the past? Any suggestions on what I should try next?
I’ve always wanted a little garden but my dogs were always munching on my herbs! I should definitely give it another try with a little fence!
Oh no! I have been worried about animals munching on my veggies, but not the dog (yet)! We have a rabbit that hops through our yard…so he had better not set his sights on my tomatoes!!!!
I’ve always wanted a garden! It will be awesome when you start getting some home grown tomatoes…yum 🙂
Annie
The Other Side of Gray
I cannot wait for that day! It is coming soon, I hope!
Your basil looks amazing…mine has little bite marks on it from some bug!
Oh no! 🙁 To be fair, some of mine does too! Thankfully there are still a ton of leaves left that aren’t munched on…hoping that continues…
Your garden looks great! Hubby has one, he has 2 huge tomato plants (one bigger one cherry) and is growing one more, mini eggplant, jalapenos, brussels sprouts, lemon basil, dill, carrots, chives, parsley, zucchini, and something else that I TOTALLY forget what it is… sweet potatoes I think? I’m so excited about them, they’re growing so big! We are overrun with tomatoes!
Oooh, you have so many awesome veggies and herbs going – totally jealous! I want to try some sweet potatoes some time in the future as well – how yummy!