A very special experience came to an end last night, friends. With great admiration and fond memories I pulled the wilted, cold remains of our first garden out of the soil’s frosty grip. I would like to reminisce on this experience with you and hopefully recount a riveting enough tale that you may consider a gardening adventure of your own next spring.
We currently live in a condo style home which means that we share the yard with three other units. Using colored pencils as any professional would, I proposed a master plan for my first garden to our condo neighbors who graciously allowed us the back corner of our lot for a small garden. This corner receives the most sunlight and was on a flat section of our shared yard. There were definitely some logistical challenges that were important to figure out because of the shared situation, but I highly encourage my fellow renters or condo owners to explore your options! Our neighbors were very encouraging and we did not have a single compliant from the little block that we all share which was really great. I am hoping that next year, more people are encouraged to try their own after watching us!
Creating our Garden Space:
On a sweltering Sunday at the very end of May, I was somehow able to convince my husband that today was the day and we must go and prepare the back corner of our yard for a garden. We had literally nothing, not even moderate intelligence, on how to garden so relied on the suggestions of family and friends for information on ‘what to purchase’ and ‘how to do’.
We ended up with a trunk full of cheap bricks from Menards, a shovel, a hoe, a large bag of peat moss, six tomato plants, four banana pepper plants, four green pepper plants, two jalapeno plants, and one each of a red and yellow pepper plant. Oh, and two slushies from Sonic.
We set to work, marking the approximate border of the garden and turning the sod grass side down into the dirt. Doing it this way allows the existing grass to fertilize the soil and it maintained the volume of soil already present so that we didn’t have to buy any filler. One drawback of this was the manual labor of hoeing the clumps of earth into a workable soil and the amount of grass that grew back through the surface that needed to be weeded out once the garden was established.
My wonderful husband followed behind me creating a sharper edge and laying bricks along the outside border. We knew the approximate size we wanted and barely measured. Our garden is not perfect and yours does not have to be either! Plants never seem to care about straight lines as much as we do. Our garden was simplified to the extent that the last brick was too big, so we put it in sideways and buried half of it. You can’t even tell. (;
We quickly realized we bought too many plants. Only three tomato plants fit along the back (tallest in back so that they didn’t block the sun exposure to the shorter pepper plants in front) and the peppers went in very crammed. The plant’s tag will often give a recommended distance for planting in rows. We should have followed those recommendations. Instead, we ended up with some fungal infections that I will discuss later on. 
Luckily, the plants did not grow as wide as I imagined they would and the space ended up being manageable. We had some strong winds and heavy rains that meant early morning trips back to the garden to situate my plant babies back in their homes. Word of caution: those tomato cages that you see everywhere? We bought three of the large size thinking it was overkill, but within two weeks all of them had tipped over from the weight of our plants. We ended up with a very silly looking contraption of rope, industrial size fence stakes, and smaller tomato cages to prop up stray limbs.
In general, I spent about thirty minutes each night after work out in the garden pulling out weeds, picking ripe vegetables, and watering. Nights where it was going to rain or a storm was in the forecast for the next day, I did not have any responsibilities in the garden but I still enjoyed some time among the plants. I even brought my cats out one evening thinking they would really appreciate the experience. They did not, and I never did that again.
What I learned my first year with a garden:
Vegetable plants are capable of producing a lot veggies. We did not need as many individual plants as we purchased to sustain the two of us and ended up with some waste when we couldn’t keep up or give the veggies away. Next year, we will do two (not four) of each plant we had this year in the same amount of space. This should encourage healthier growth and will be more realistic for our needs.
- Spacing is so important. Our tomato plants did well enough, but they were hampered all season by powdery mildew and some form of fungal blight. It is difficult to diagnose exactly which fungus was present in our garden despite a lot of research. I think it was something called septoria leaf spot. By mid June, most of my time in the garden was spent removing infected leaves and trying to thin out the denser areas. It was a very sad to witness this happening to my garden; I will be spending some time this winter looking into natural solutions for next year if it happens again.
- If you are worried about the amount of ‘time’ it takes to garden, please don’t be! I weeded only because I enjoyed it (laugh all you want) but I would not say it was super necessary. Young plants may need a little extra care not to be crowded out, but as they grew big and tall the spattering of dandelions and plantains did not seem to inhibit growth. Your garden will take any time you are willing to offer it, but it will also take care of itself to an extent.
- The vegetables you will grow are of superior quality. Our recent switch back to store bought tomatoes for the winter has created a tangible sadness in the air at mealtime. I cannot say enough just how amazing garden vegetables are with their full flavors and vivid colors. We are already so excited for our first spring harvest!
- We had always heard how stressful it can be to keep critters away from a garden, but we had literally no issues. Living in a subdivision, we knew deer would not be an issue but there are tons of rabbits around our place. There was one evening where I noticed something had chomped into a mid-sized tomato, but it never happened again. Without any kind of fencing or pest repellent, we felt very lucky to avoid these issues. I have heard that having outdoor animals (dogs and cats) can be a great deterrent for scavenging critters. Maybe there are more stray cats in our neighborhood than I thought…
Personally, and I know my husband would agree, the amount of time and money we put into our first garden was so incredibly worth it. For a grand total of probably $75 and two hours per week, we had all of the amazing fresh vegetables that we could eat from June through September. We were blessed to be able to gift any extras and can a whole shelf of goods to eat through the winter. Mentally, I was able to balance myself with time outdoors everyday and caring for life that I was responsible for. Check out this article for more information on the mental health benefits of caring for a garden.
Garden Benefits:
This list is endless. In our first limited year of this experience, we were completely blown away by the ease of caring for our little vegetable patch. We have loved making people smile with the jellies, sauces, and pickled products that are unique and delicious. My love language is definitely giving gifts, and we have been able to share some really cool things for free with the people we love. The sense of pride I feel when we share our experience with people has built my confidence and has allowed me to encourage others to take on this adventure. Our marriage was strengthened by the team work and time spent together over our plants and products. Our diets vastly improved as we found new recipes centered around the vegetables we grew and the constant need to eat these fresh goodies before they filled our kitchen to the brim! We learned so much about canning, composting, harvesting, and plant care. I feel so blessed by the mental and physical benefits that our first garden brought to my life.
