Oh, will my garden grow?

Right about this time last year, Grace wrote a fantastic blog about her garden. She has quite the green thumb and her gardens always bear amazing vegetables. Her talk of fresh this and ripe that made me want a garden of my own.

My husband and I have talked about planting a small garden in our backyard for a few years now. We had the spot picked out and talked about what we would plant, but that was pretty much as far as it got—until this year. I came home one day to find my husband and children planting seeds in a little starter kit. They were planting corn, spinach, carrots, watermelon, tomatoes, sweet peppers, bell peppers, and sunflowers, because Mommy loves sunflowers! They nestled all of the seeds in their little dirt beds and put the plastic lids on. We put them under a window with plenty of light and began waiting for results.

The results came much sooner than we expected. By day two we had sprouts. The corn and sunflowers took off. After only a few days we had to adjust the plastic lids because the plants were starting to bend over since they were getting so tall. They really needed to be put in the ground, but we weren’t going to have time for transplanting for a few more days. After about a week, my husband rented a tiller and broke ground on the spot we had picked out. He made the little rows and we all began to plant our tiny seedlings. The kids enjoyed the first 15 minutes or so, but soon realized that playing frisbee was much more fun. We got everything planted, drenched it in Miracle Grow, and crossed our fingers. We figured if we were able to eat one vegetable from our garden we would deem it a success.

Well it seems that we know even less about gardening than we thought. Apparently you have to plant the corn in rows beside each other so they will pollinate. Pollinate? I had no idea that corn pollinates. I think we got lucky and few wound up close together. Several of the ones that began in the starter kit immediately wilted and died. We had a few seeds left, so my husband just stuck those in the ground.

None of the sunflowers made it, so I planted a few in a pot on the front steps of the house and they are doing great. We didn’t mark what everything was, but I think the carrots have bitten the dust as well.

It isn’t a complete bust, though. The tomatoes, peppers, and spinach are doing great. The newly planted corn seeds are growing up strong and we noticed a couple of watermelon vines creeping out as well. There may be hope for our garden yet.

We, and by “we” I mean my husband, will have to work to stay on top of the weeding. And we need to keep the Miracle Grow flowing. My neighbor mentioned how much trouble he had with squirrels when he tried to plant his garden. Squirrels!!! Surely the squirrels won’t eat my veggies. I always take up for them when people call them rodents. I think they are precious. I even put out food for them last year. I can’t imagine my squirrels wrecking my garden! But to be on the realistic side, I should probably do a little homework and see if there are ways to deter them. As much as I know they like me, I’m sure it is every squirrel for himself. I am trying to take photos to document our first garden and I am anxiously awaiting that first ripe veggie. Since there is more green in the garden now, we have raised our expectations a little bit and are now hoping for at least five veggies that we can eat. I will keep you posted.

~Raydra