Over the past few weeks, I have posted information about my garden. I decided that instead of posting heights and counts, I would write about what I have learned about gardening in my first attempt.
I was a little nervous starting this venture, as I had never so much as grown a single food-producing plant in my life. Sure, I’ve kept the Christmas cactus and a few other household plants alive, but they were bought at a store and all the hard work was already done. All I had to do was water them. No big deal, right? Here’s what I learned…
-Zucchini plants take over a garden. We got this tiny plant from Hewitts and it couldn’t have been more than 6 inches long with one leaf. Now, it is a massive, 3 foot round, 3 foot tall monster covering a strawberry plant and a banana pepper plant. Next time, I will give it a very large area to grow in and make sure none of the smaller plants get shaded out.
-Tomato plants get HUGE! I gave them about a foot and a half in between, but they still have grown so big that I can barely walk between them. They are also almost up to my chest in height. Next year, I will plant them about three feet apart so I can walk between them to pick the tomatoes when they are ripe.
-I also need to put some type of weed control down. Not a chemical, but maybe weed cloth. I have kept up with the weeds for the most part, but some have grown a little more than I would like.
-I need to work on a compost pile. I was told that the pile will help to enrich the soil and make it much more fertile.
-Putting something down (grass clippings, leaves) around the base of the plants will help keep the moisture in the ground for the plants.
So far, the garden has been a success. I have harvested two large zucchini, a grape tomato and a cherry tomato. There are two small sweet peppers starting to grow as well. A lot of the other tomatoes have started to grow, but aren’t quite ripe yet. One thing is for sure – I am going to have tomatoes out the wazoo pretty soon! Guess I better learn a little bit about canning!