Part of me is excited. Part of me is terrified. Part of me is confident. Part of me is clueless. I have a lot of emotions around this. I guess we'll just see what happens.
We'll start from smallest to biggest....
1. The basil herb planter. Thank you Tupperware. Self-watering, it'll sit in my windowsill and smell glorious all summer and into the fall. I think I finally got rid of my last plant because it got too darn tall. I heart basil.
2. Topsy-turvy tomatoes. This will be my fourth year doing this.
Year 1 - miserable failure. Four tomatoes total.
Year 2 - incredible success. Boatloads of tomatoes all summer long.
Year 3 - semi-miserable failure. We got tomatoes, and they tasted fabulous, but something was wrong with them. As soon as I'd pluck them from the plant, nice and red and juicy, they'd crack in my hands. So sad. Some of them would crack on the plant. It was like they were bursting with so much flavor they couldn't handle it. This year I on purpose did NOT buy the kind of tomato I got last year. So we'll see what happens. I wish I could remember what I bought year 2.
BlueDragonfly my awesome friend with a killer garden suggests a gardening journal! Most awesome idea.
3. Raspberry starts. Evidently these bad boys are invasive (yay) and should grow forever. Some woman on my Facebook mom group has like her whole side yard full of them, and they started to take over her planter so she invited people over to dig. I thought I did a terrible job, I thought I cut off the roots and they'd all die that afternoon in pots in my backyard. But no, two days later and they all look OK (I got like 6 of them). I emailed her for advice and she said even if they die, lay the dead stems sideways in the planter and they'll come up next year. Hearty little buggers. I don't expect a yield at all this year, but we're getting started. Final task here, we need a lattice or trellis behind so they'll grow up. ("Climbing vegetables" they are called. Technical term.)
4. Strawberries on the patio. I did strawberries in pots last summer and it was a miserable failure. The kind I had were ever-bearing strawberries and I hear those are generally no good. I got LOTS of berries... they were white... but before they could turn red they'd get big and I'd get excited and then they'd rot out in the middle. Weird. This year I bought a start of June-bearing berries, and I plan to transplant some more from BlueDragonfly's June-bearing patch.
(The teeny planters to the right there are two things Wesley brought home from preschool. They might be dead. A pumpkin and a crocus. Random preschool projects, I'm sure.)
5. Our fruit trees. Nothing has changed since last year. We had minimal success with the cherries, and GREAT AWESOME success with the plums. I hope things get better with the cherries and stay the same with the plums? Plus I've done more research and I know how to take care of the "land" better, I guess.
You can see our little cherries and one teeeeeeeny start to a plum. The plums don't ripen until August or something, I think. Cherries are earlier.
(teeeeeny plum right there, bottom left-ish)
6. My planter. Big news. Shane built me a planter. All the dirt came from a compost pile from some friends at Church. (Another friend of theirs, who was there when we were getting our dirt, said to watch out because random things will start growing from the compost. Like kale, tomatoes, tomatillos. Um, hilarious.)
The planter is about 4x4, but not quite. I bisected the thing with a "+" sign of butterfly weed, which may grow or not grow. I couldn't tell from the seeds. They are perennial but maybe they won't grow until next year?
In one corner are two zucchini starts and some lettuce. In another corner are garden beans and radishes. In another corner are green onions and carrots. In the final corner are snap peas and pea pods. Still to-do is make a lattice or trellis for the peas. I have three dowel rods and I kinda wanna make a tee-pee. I've got to
get on that like ASAP. At least they're in the ground.
I put something on the Facebook mommy group about easy, confidence-building plants to grow and these were all recommended. I should make a note that I didn't really follow any of the directions on the seed packets. One of them, radishes I think, said that when I yield a harvest I have to replant to yield more. I should make note of this. But I hear some stuff grows forever, like herbs like oregano will grow in the winter even.
I'm excited, but I'm starting to get worried.... there are plenty of bugs and worms in the compost I got, but how do I know if bugs are good bugs and worms are good worms? I HAVE NO IDEA. I want to kill them all but am trying to resist. I'm worried about slugs... someone said to cover the edge of the planter box with copper flashing and that should do it. I'm worried about birds. I got a pinwheel for the middle of the planter.
(Talk about incompetent... here is what one of my Facebook friends from the TriCities posted on Saturday.... sigh: "42 tomatoes, baby watermelon, slicing cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, spaghetti squash, Hutterite beans, 30 peppers (8 varieties), 3 kinds of basil, lemon thyme, lemon balm, sage, rosemary, chives, cilantro, tomatillos, cippolini onions, leeks, 3 kinds of storing onions, more lettuce, and butternut squash are ALL IN THE GROUND. Still need zucchini, yellow squash, and a handful of other random things to plant, but I'm nearly done. I cannot wait to eat out of the garden this summer!" YEAH RIGHT. It's kind of funny how seriously I am taking myself compared to people like this.)
Basically, this is all a huge gamble. I should tally up how much money I've spent and see what actual "food" we get out of this. Plus, I'll have to water every day (I've been watering twice a day since Saturday since it's been hot -- yes you read that correctly, I said it's been hot in Seattle), and I wonder what that will do to our water bill. PLUS I'm sure there are countless hours ahead of weeding, reorganizing, tending, fretting, etc.
So many people say, "oh it's easy." But is it really easy? I guess I'm about to find out.
