How Green is My Thumb?

Hello there, oh, readers of mine! It has definitely been a while. It's been a very busy summer, and, honestly, after the last minute surge I had right before my birthday, I was too exhausted to catch up on my blog posts. I'm almost there, however, with only this and one other post to go before I'm caught up with year one of The Valancy Stirling Project. The last one, the post on my trip to Stampede, will be a big one, so I imagine it'll take me some time to complete. And I took several hundred pictures that I'll have to sift through to tell my story. But I digress. Here is the latest installment, my post on list item number 25, Plant and Take Care of a Big Garden.

One reason I waited so long to do this post was that I wanted to prove that I did, in fact, take CARE of the garden, not just plant it. I was finally able to harvest the other day, so I had something to prove that I'd done what I set out to do. 

 
I spent a moderate amount of money on my garden. Luckily, I got a really good deal on dirt, and I already had most of the seeds. Most of my money was spent making the gardens on either side of my door pretty. Here's a before and after, because you know how I love my before and after shots.

In the spring this is what I came home to everyday. We worked so hard on the inside we forgot about the outside, until the snow melted, that is. 

And here's the end product! I dug up the right side and planted pansies, creeping jenny, nasturtiums and a few other flowers. We had huge rain storms in May and June, which washed away all of my nasturtiums and drowning several of my pansies. I left the other side alone, because it was full of forget-me-nots, which I love. 






Now, as some of you may remember, my original plan was to plant the garden in the now empty lot where my late uncle's house used to stand. Unfortunately, once my cousins and I began clean-up, we discovered that the ground was too contaminated by glass and construction debris to be useable. We went to plan B and opted for container gardening. I have to say that I wasn't overly impressed with the end result. But more on that later.

In the beginning, there was an empty lot. Well, empty in that there was no house on it, but in actuality it was a mess of wood, glass and random house paraphernalia. And a freezer. That came from my basement. My dad and I dragged it out. Then neighbourhood hooligans moved it down here. And yes, we took the lid off.



Anywho, my cousins and I worked very hard raking and shoveling the debris into piles and dumping it into an abandoned septic tank on the property. All that rain we got in May, however, weighed it all down too much for us to move it. We never did finish, but it ended up looking better, until the grass grew, and then it all looked like a horrible, overgrown mess. The huge amounts of rain also affected our planting. Not only did we have to wait much later than I'd planned to actually plant (end of May, beginning of June to be exact), but once we did we got lots more wind and rain, and many of our seeds either washed or blew away.

Eventually, however, we did get it all planted.

This is the side garden before, which was more successful than the containers.

And this is how it looked in the end. My cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, green peppers and peas were planted here. The peas were an epic fail. Most of them washed away. The beans weren't much better, but I got some. The green peppers NEVER grow well, so I'll probably just put in 2 more tomato plants next year because they grew really well. The cucumbers were ok, but not as good as last year.

Now, back to container gardening. First, my dad drilled holes in some totes for me. Then my friend and I filled them with big rocks.

Then I filled them all with dirt. Each bin took 3 bags of dirt. In retrospect, I should have added some manure or something to enrich the soil. Maybe that's why they were pretty much a bust.






The rain had slowed down, but we were still getting enough that I rarely had to water the gardens myself. When I did, however, I realized that I didn't have a normal sized watering can, which forced me to have to water my garden with this.

 

Not easy. I eventually bought a new one, but only had to use it a few times. Everything started growing pretty quickly, which got me really excited.

 

I planted my seed potatoes a bit later than the other stuff, but they also sprouted up quickly.











And then I went to Calgary. We had a HUGE heat wave in NB while I was away. My cousin faithfully watered the garden for me, but I guess it just wasn't enough. I was away for 11 days and when I came back most of the garden looked exactly the way it had when I left. And it stayed that way. Some things stopped growing entirely (onions, green onions, mesculin mix) and some looked promising briefly but didn't amount to anything (yellow zucchini, carrots). I ended up with a grand total of I think 4 radishes and enough lettuce to make a very, very small salad. Like, about 1/2 a cup. I also got one tiny green pepper. They never grow. I don't even know why I bother.

Last year I did really well with my beans, radishes and cucumbers. This year the beans and cucumbers were ok, but my best growers were my potatoes and my tomatoes.

Look at that gorgeous thing. I've never really had success with tomatoes before, but this year I was just giddy about them! I'd go check on them everyday just to see the progress, and when the first one ripened I brought it in the house and my parents and I shared it. Delicious. 








And so I came to the end of the summer. The other night I had a Scentsy party and one of the girls said there was supposed to be frost that night. I panicked. I was NOT about to lose my entire harvest that I'd nursed all summer. So, at 10 o'clock at night I went out in the cold and the dark, flashlight in one had, plastic bag in the other, and I harvested my crops. I was fine in the side garden, but when I had to go down to the other yard to harvest from my totes I admit to calling for help from my dad. And he came down in the dark, because he's a good daddy. So, there we were, late at night with only a flashlight, digging through a bucket of cold dirt for potatoes. I was really impressed by the potato harvest, so I'll definitely grow them again. When I got back to the house my mom came down and helped me wash it all.

Here's the final tally!! There's about 8 pounds of tomatoes (most of which are now in a box covered in newspapers to help them ripen) and 4 pounds of potatoes. You can see my bumper crop of lettuce there, along with my last radish and my microscopic green pepper. I jarred the beans, and I'll probably serve them at Thanksgiving, so everyone who helped me with the garden can taste them. I got a 250ml jar and a 500ml jar. I'll eat the tiny salad someday with my supper. I had some potatoes tonight and will probably just continue to pick away at them. I love potatoes. The cucumbers will probably go to my mother, who is planning on making mustard pickles, and the tomatoes will be made into ketchup. Can't wait!




So that was my garden experience this year. I learn more and get better harvests every year. 29 (now officially my boyfriend, by the way) asked me if I thought it was worth the money I'd spent, and to me it was. I absolutely LOVE seeing my garden go from a little plot of dirt to a lush green space full of natural, healthy vegetables. It may not look like much, but today, for the first time ever, I ate potatoes that had been growing in the ground a day before. I know exactly how old all that food is. I watched them grow from almost nothing into the beautiful feast you see here. I know that they are natural, with no pesticides, and I feel an amazing sense of accomplishment when I look at this picture. Yet another list item that I am proud to show off!