Fix-It Sunday: Planting a Vegetable Garden

About a month ago, I was at OSH looking for a bush to cover a pipe we had to have installed in our front yard. I spoke to a guy in the gardening department about what I wanted to do. He directed me to gardenias.

“Are you good at gardening?” he asked.
“No,” I replied.
“I wouldn’t get it then. They are fragile. If you aren’t good at gardening, you’ll kill it pretty quickly.”
I smiled and thought to myself, “Is that a challenge?”
“I’ll take two!” I said with a big grin on my face.
He chuckled and shook his head.

I hate getting my fingers dirty. I used to wear disposable gloves to knead bread. The idea of playing around in dirt is not appealing to me. Finding worms, snails or bugs in dirt is (in my opinion) disgusting! I do love most flowers and trees. I have been known to buy beautiful plants at farmer’s markets and hardware stores, put then in the backyard, water them a couple of times, and then never water them again. Gardening maintenance is not my forte. I build sprinkler systems with timers and almost literally never return.

I grew up surrounded by a plethora of fruit trees. Plums, pears, oranges, cherries, lemons, peaches, apples, limes and grapefruits were in abundance in our backyard. I learned to cook in the kitchen from all the fruit growing year round in the yard.

These days the squirrels, birds, raccoons, and critters from the creek have taken more than their fair share. My mother planted a vegetable garden and got less than 20% of the veggies. One person recommended that she cut yogurt containers in half, fill them with a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce, and place them in shallow holes around the vegetable garden. The next day not only were the veggies gone whatever it was had moved the yogurt container with soy sauce across the yard and had clearly used the soy sauce for seasoning! Ugh.

This year, I am determined to grow my own veggies and eat them too. However, I have NO IDEA what I am doing. My thumb is purple not green! I built a 8’x5′ raised vegetable garden bed with posts at each corner. I made the box three feet tall to keep my two dogs out. The top and sides will have 1/2″ hardware cloth. Hardware cloth is like chicken wire but it looks alike a grid of tiny squares instead of hexagons. The hardware cloth will be attached to removable frames secured with latches. I am not playing around. If I plant it, I should get to eat it too. The bottom was to be lined with chicken wire to deter anything from digging, but I was so eager to get the dirt into the box that I forgot. Hopefully, it won’t make a difference.

Target had organic seeds in their garden department! I planted the seeds according to the package instructions. A friend of mine suggested a plant 2 or 3 seeds together with the assumption that not all of them would sprout. A soaker hose was weaved along each row. The soaker hose is attached to a timer to water twice a day for 90 minutes. I planted tomatoes, beets, carrots, spinach, broccoli, lettuce, and cucumbers. Since I only planted seeds, the water from the soaker hose will not be effective until they are full plants. So, I have been diligently going out to water everyday.

Last week, they started sprouting! The cucumbers were first. As of today, everything has sprouted with the exception of the beets and tomatoes. It is really fun to go out everyday and see what it is popping up and how fast they are growing. I haven’t had a chance to put up the chicken wire yet; but I am sure all the unwelcome wildlife in the yard has already noticed what I am up to. Uh oh . . .