Planting a Vegetable Garden

(Photo courtesy of Flickr)

We finally did it – we planted our vegetable garden! A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I had been wanting a vegetable garden for years. After removing a ton of stones and small boulders from our “rock garden” and turning over the land, we were finally ready to plant. However, one thing led to another, including my trip out of town, and we weren’t able to plant the garden until today.

Our first step was clearing the garden once more – this time of those spinner things that fall from the trees. They are such a nuisance because if they actually take to the soil they can sprout little trees anywhere and everywhere. Well, I couldn’t let that happen to my garden, so rake in hand, I removed as many as I could.

After that, we headed to Home Depot to pick out our plants. Unfortunately, there must have been a mad rush for vegetable seedlings on this 85-degree day, because many of the vegetables we wanted were not even there. Blah! So, it was off to another garden center for us. I had better luck at the garden center, but still had to buy seeds for some of the vegetables we wanted. I was told it might be “too late” to start from seeds, but what the heck. If it doesn’t work, I’m only wasting about $5 on 3 packets.

After over an hour of shopping, here is what we finally arrived home with:

Seedlings

1. Cilantro – one plant
2. Thai basil – one plant
3. Roma tomatoes – two plants, plus two more for a Topsy Turvy hanging plant holder
4. Red, green, yellow peppers – 4 plants total
5. Cucumbers – 2 plants
6. Jalapeno – about 8 plants total
7. Watermelon – 1 plant (hey, it’s worth a shot!)
8. Snap peas – 2 plants (heard they were easy to grow)
9. Strawberries – 6 plants for a Topsy Turvy holder

Seed Packets

1. Carrots
2. Broccoli
3. Spinach

Quite honestly, aside from finding all of the plants we wanted, the hardest part of planting our garden was deciding where to put everything. Each vegetable has special needs – snap peas grow up and they like to be close together; carrots can’t be planted too deep or shallow; watermelon vines spread out so they need lots of space, etc. We did our best to make sure every vegetable was given the attention it needed. We even got the kids involved – helping us drop the seedlings into the holds, pouring in the dirt, etc. They called it “making salad”, which was just too funny! Little do they know that in a few months, that’s exactly what they will have – all the makings for a salad!

Now, only time, and consistent watering/weeding, will tell how well we’ve done at our first attempt at gardening. I admit, we have probably gotten in over our heads. I’m not worried about recouping the $100 we spent on the garden, I just want to actually have vegetables grow and not have our efforts be completely fruitless (no pun intended). Stay tuned!!