Tour of an Imperfect Garden

In the winter, I used the books to plan out my garden. I reviewed the seed catalogs and ordered all the seeds. I researched my last frost date and counted backwards to start seeds indoors. 

I planted more seeds than I needed just in case something happened. The kids joined on this adventure and sometimes they even labeled the contents of their seed trays.

The seedlings sprouted. I moved them to the heated garage in an effort to stop tripping over them in my kitchen. Later, I discovered that despite having heat in the garage, it wasn't humid enough. The seedlings in the garage required multiple waterings a day to keep them alive. As you can imagine, that didn't always happen. 

We have a hoop-house style greenhouse. We used this structure to house the chickens and rabbits over the winter. It worked very well for this purpose, and we didn't have issues with frozen water. However, the temporary deer netting fence that we had used didn't always work to keep the chickens contained to their side of the structure. I didn't feel that the few plants that survived the dry garage would be safe in this unsecured environment. Meanwhile, we continued to plant seeds and my kitchen and garage was overrun. I discovered that I really need a better seed starting system next year. 

In the spring, we moved the animals back out to the pasture. They were excited to be on fresh ground and I was excited to have my greenhouse back. The spring weather here was cooler than normal and I was concerned about moving the tender plants into the structure. The doors and bottoms of the side walls weren't completely secure which resulted in colder temperatures than you would expect from a greenhouse. This wasn't an issue with the animals but as we unfortunately discovered, the overnight lows were too much for the little seedlings. We attempted to take them inside every night and return them to the direct sunlight during the day, but it only took one night of forgetting to kill a few more plants. At this point, I was impressed with any of the plants that happened to survive.

The weather improved and it was time to plant them. I knew that I wanted to focus on growing tomatoes as we eat a lot of them in sauces, soups, canned, etc. I decided to run them down the middle of the greenhouse with a trellis system. 

We live on a hill. In order to build the barn and the greenhouse, we had to have the area leveled with large equipment. This removed the fertile topsoil and left us with a lot of clay. In order to provide the best soil for the plants, I used our generated compost and the deep bedding that the chickens and rabbits lived on to provide the base for the plants. Instead of simply planting into the ground, each plant required a mound of composted material to set the plant into before mulching it. We used grass for our mulch because it was readily available. Our neighbors probably thought that we were crazy to start mowing our yard so early in the season, but it wasn't for aesthetic purposes. We needed the mulch. 

Even though I was continuously planting more seeds in trays, I knew that if I was going to have any kind of garden, I was going to have to purchase plants. So, I did. I purchased plants from neighbors, friends at the farmer's market, local small businesses, etc.

Then, I planted the plants that needed planting. I attempted to label them along the way, but the main point was to get the new plants into the ground and settled. Besides the two rows of mostly tomato plants down the middle, nothing else made it into rows. If I had a spot and a plant, that is where it would go. It drives the hubby bonkers to have this disorganized of a system. Somehow, it makes sense to me. 

Now, it is July, and this is what my garden looks like:

I continue to plant seeds throughout the season for succession planting and hopes for a fall garden. Let's discuss my workbench.  

 - Notice my cup of coffee. This is a requirement to keep me going if the baby doesn't sleep well. 

 - Notice the old jugs of purchased fertilizer. I currently use my son's worm tea (natural fertilizer filtered through his worm farm) but these jugs are simply here for decoration as I never remember to remove them. One day, I will reclaim the space on this shelf for better purposes. 

 - Notice the red solo cups with tomato suckers. I learned a tip from a great YouTube video: https://youtu.be/By9A_vQN66Y.  She describes a process of taking the suckers that you cut off of your tomato plants and placing them in water to allow them to generate roots. Then, place these plants in the ground for a second generation of plants. It sounds cool, so I'm trying it out. I'll let you know of my results at a later date. 

 - Notice the spray bottle. It is a combination of neem oil and water. I use this to ward off pests from my plants. It probably works better when sprayed onto the plants than simply sitting on this shelf. 

- The red arrow is pointing to some pepper plants. We happened upon a nursery with an abundance of pepper plants that were getting too old for their pots, so we got a great deal. 

- The yellow arrow shows some succulents. I'm not sure where they came from nor why they are here. 

- The orange arrow shows my newly transplanted nasturtiums. I had a spot and the nasturtiums looked bored in their original containers, so they were moved to this location. 

 - The green arrow shows a pot of volunteers. I didn't plant a single one of these plants in this pot. I think there are two tomato plants and possibly a cucumber plant. They apparently like this location, so I'm letting them hang out a while longer before I find them a more suitable home. 

- The purple arrow shows what may be a bean plant. We will have to wait to find out. Isn't gardening fun and full of surprises?!

  - Here are more pepper plants. 

 - The green arrow shows some radishes. Or maybe beets? We will know for sure when we harvest them. 

 - The orange arrow shows a tomato plant. It was ready to be transplanted and this was the only space available for it in the greenhouse. It seems happy here. I will eventually have to set up a trellis. 

 - The blue area is an encroachment of weeds from the outside world. I have a boundary set. When they cross that boundary, I pull them. Otherwise, they just hang out and live their best lives. 

  - The red arrows are more peppers. 

 - The blue arrow is pointing to some beans. They are doing well despite trying to be overcome by the unintentional monstrosity (more on that later). 

 - The green arrow is pointing to marigolds. They were a pity purchase from a big box store that had them on clearance. They don't look great, but much better than when they started. 

 - The yellow area shows some carrots. I know they are carrots because I accidentally pulled one in my haste of pulling undesired weeds. I think I planted carrot seeds and when they didn't germinate as quickly as my patience level allowed, I simply planted other things over and around them. Those dang carrots really need to start growing faster because this is a recurring theme in the garden this year. They are surviving where they can and I'm trying not to pull them out of the ground prematurely. 

 - The orange arrow is pointing to more peppers. 

 - The red arrow is pointing to the lone tomato plant that I mentioned in the previous picture. The variety is unknown at this time since we lost the tag. 

- I introduce to you, The Unintended Monstrosity. Last year, we received a donation of old pumpkins, gourds, and squashes that were used for decor and no longer needed. We stored these items and fed them to our chickens as treats throughout the winter. Apparently, the chickens didn't eat all of them as we have a few unknown plants that keep popping up and despite lack of care and cutting back, they continue to grow. I think there was an 1980's movie about a killer plant. I hope this isn't one of them! 

 - The red area is the monster plant trying to take over everything else. 

 - The orange arrow is pointing to beans. 

 - The yellow arrow is pointing to the remaining potato plants. We have already harvested them for some tasty baby spuds. 

 - The green arrow is a variety of flowers planted here to attract pollinators and because they are pretty. 

 - The red arrow is pointing to some sweet potato vines. They were outgrowing their original area and I didn't want to risk transplanting them, so we started this makeshift trellis. 

 - The orange arrow is pointing to a pumpkin plant that belongs to my daughter and is flourishing. She claimed this spot in the greenhouse to plant her mystery plants. When she planted her seeds, she simply labeled them with HER name and so we were all surprised when her pumpkin plant started growing. Her green thumb has forced many things to be moved or be overtaken. 

 - The red shows a different view of my daughter's pumpkin plant. It has even decided to grow outside of the greenhouse and is cascading along the ground on the other side. 

 - The green arrow is pointing to a tomato plant. This wasn't intentionally planted but we suspect it is left over from some tomatoes that my son planted last year as they look to be the same variety. It wanted to grow here so badly that I simply didn't have the heart to move it. We built it a trellis and try to keep the pumpkin from eating it. 

 - The yellow arrow is showing more beans. 

 - The orange arrow is pointed to my basil plants. I had recently harvested a bunch from these plants, so they have been cut back a bit. 

 - The blue arrow is pointing to my parsley plants. What? You don't see it? It's because the pumpkin plant tried to eat it. I will move it soon. 

 - The green arrows are pointing to some hot varieties of pepper plants. 

 - The blue arrow is pointing to a lonely nasturtium plant. It got in my way one day and I moved it here. I don't think it is happy with this arrangement. 

 - The pink arrow is pointing to unwanted weeds that are encroaching into the greenhouse. They may have to go away soon. 

 - The orange arrow is pointing to a bean plant. We discovered later that this variety is a pole bean and wanted something to climb. 

 - The red arrow is pointing to a few more volunteer tomato plants. 

 - The yellow arrow is pointing to some carrots. Can't see them? They should have sprouted sooner and maybe the pumpkin plant wouldn't have overshadowed them. 

 - Here's one line of tomato plants. They are trellised with twine to a post in the ceiling of the greenhouse. I know that they are planted too close together. I have been dealing with that by hard pruning them to ensure good airflow and production. 

 - Here's the second line of tomato plants. Again, they are planted too close together, but they are growing and starting to produce. 

 - The yellow arrow is pointing to a cucumber plant. 

 - The orange arrow is pointing to red clover and other plants wanting to join the party in the greenhouse. 

 - The red arrow is showing more pepper plants. 

 - Here are some cucumber plants. There were some radishes growing behind them, but we have already harvested them. 

 - Here are some potato plants. 

 - The green arrow is pointing to more pepper plants. Did I mention that we got a good deal on these pepper plants?

 - The yellow arrow is pointing to a watermelon plant. I'm not sure why this was planted here but it seems happy. 

 - The orange arrows are pointing to my sad cabbage plants (aka bug-food). I purchased the neem oil and even put it in a spray bottle but haven't walked my lazy butt down this aisle to spray the plants. I don't know if neem oil deters bugs if applied but I do know that it will not work if left inside the bottle. We will eventually pull these and give them to the chickens. 

 - The red arrows are pointing to potato plants. 

 - Here are more tomato plants. 

- Here are some more pepper plants interspersed with some radishes and grass that hasn't been pulled. 

 - The red arrow is pointing to more tomato plants. 

 - The orange arrows are pointing to another unintentional monstrosity that planted itself. It is producing a green squash-shaped fruit but I have no idea what variety is actually is. We will continue to wait for better identification. 

 - Here's another cucumber plant trellising along the outer wall of the greenhouse. 

 - The yellow arrow is pointing to some dill. This is the second place that I have tried it. It was not happy in a potted plant on the deck. 

 - The orange arrow is pointing to lavender. It smells great! I plan to replant it somewhere else, but I haven't decided exactly where it should live on the property. 

 - The red arrow is pointing to some peppers. 

 - This is the rabbit pellet drying area. My son collects the pellets from the rabbits and dries them on this screen. When complete, he packages them into bags and sells this natural fertilizer at the Farmer's Market to people who do not have access to rabbits. 

Now, to the garden outside of the greenhouse:

 - The red arrow is pointing to the area where we threw out some pumpkin seeds. We had saved them from the fall and didn't think we had preserved them correctly, so we really didn't expect them to germinate. We were wrong. 

 - The orange arrow is pointing to a sunflower. We had planted quite a few of these and they didn't fare as well as the pumpkin. 

 - The brown arrow is pointing to a squash plant. I'm not sure what variety. 

 - The purple arrow is pointing to a zucchini plant. It has produced well this season. 

 - The pink arrow is pointing to potatoes. 

 - The blue arrow is pointing to sweet potatoes. 

 - The orange arrow is pointing to red cabbage. It did receive some sprays of the neem oil/water mixture and the bugs haven't completely destroyed it. 

 - The yellow arrow is pointing to cabbage. We have yet to see if the bugs will win this one. 

 - The red arrow is pointing to beans. 

 - The green arrow is pointing to a random corn. We didn't plant any corn this year. Yet, we will have a bumper crop. We ran our pigs through this area of the garden while we were training them on the electric fence. It turns out that some of the corn seed made it and decided to grow. 

I know what you are thinking, "Does she see those weeds?!". The answer is yes. I had it on my list to weed out the outside garden and it just hasn't happened. The weeds continue to grow. At this point, I'm trying to decide how much I really care about this section of the garden. 

Am I a professional gardener? No. 

Do I enjoy gardening? Yes. 

Are we producing food for our family? Yes. 

Is it enough? No. 

The important thing is that I am trying, learning and adapting to the plants on the property. You don't have to be a master gardener to grow something. Sometimes, you can simply throw out some seeds and they will grow. Other times, you can baby plants and they will never succeed for you. It's about the attempt, the effort, the growing of your knowledge and calming of the soul as you work the ground. 

If you learn nothing else from this post, you should feel confident that you don't have to possess a perfect green thumb to grow a garden.