While it may seem like I’m all work and no play (which would still make me very content) I do have a few other pursuits.  Such as gardening, which may come as a surprise to many.

Due to events in my life I knew I’d have to eat cleaner, and the best way to do that is to grow it myself. So I researched and converted my entire front and back yards into gardens.

The back yard received three large beds full of fruits and veggies, and the front was converted into both a flower / seed garden and a place for me to experiment with growing certain fruits and vegetables in the front beds without being cited.

Rather than be haphazard about the whole thing I planned it all out by the square foot.  Literally.  And planned for companion planting and succession planting.

Front Yard

These were my plans for the front beds, and they are kind of like that now.   They’re all laid out and planted with the summer and fall plants and I have all of the fall bulbs coming this month.  The front garden is actually a little overgrown currently and needs some selective pruning.  but more about that later.

This was the front yard after the beds were laid out.  And the enormous pile of mulch that we named Mulchasaurus.

This is the front yard right now – since it’s been so hot I haven’t gotten out to cull.  Notice the now 12′ tall cannas right next to the house (reddish/brown leaves with a red flower poking up).  Cannas are only supposed to get to 6′ tall.  The plastic edging at the front was a temporary measure for the massive rain storms we’ve had just to keep the soil up.

Back Yard

Now onto the backyard, this was the plan – three large beds.  And that’s exactly how it turned out.

This was the back once the beds were up and growing:

Oh, that little house you see above, that’s a little heated cat house for the neighborhood feral cats.  I’m a cat lover.

Now, onto the good stuff.

What I Learned

This year was my experimentation year.  While I originally simply tilled the back yard and created impromptu gardens, I knew it was best to build raised beds.  So ultimately that’s what I did.  And I will add another 6″ to each bed this winter and fill in the beds with a compost and top soil mix to make deeper beds to allow for better root growth.  That way I can more easily grow things like beets and potatoes.

I planted a lot in both the front and back gardens so I could tell what would and wouldn’t grow well.  This was the time to flesh out the garden enough so I could see how tall things are, how they could grow, what I should do more of, what I should do less of, and more.

Remember, in the first year a garden sleeps, in the second year a garden creeps, in the third year a garden leaps.

So what ever you do, don’t expect your first year to be how your garden will actually look.  I knew this going in, which is why I filled in many areas with annuals like zinnia.

In the front beds I learned that many things need to be started as seeds in the ground rather than indoors and transplanted.  While you can easily grow many seeds in those little peat pots and pods, most plants don’t transplant well.  However, in the back I found that many plants are best started indoors months in advance and in those little pots.  For example, my pumpkin and watermelon plants did fantastically in little pods then pots.  But remember, if you start anything indoors you have to provide the plants with resistance (like the wind would if they were outdoors).  This keeps plants short, stubby, and strong.  To do this, simply brush your hand over the plants like you’re petting them.

I didn’t know that originally and thought long leggy plants were great … not the case.

I learned that corn needs to be planted in a 4 x 4 square with 16 plants in order to properly fertilize because it’s wind fertilized. Who knew? Needless to say my corn was a bust.  Peas too, not sure why.  Lettuce grew great but was hard to distinguish from the weeds … oops, my fault for not weeding enough.  Tomatoes grew beautifully – but were stolen by neighbors.  Note to self – install cameras and no trespassing signs.  Or get a very large and angry dog that is loving to me.

Oh – sunflowers, while beautiful, their roots secrete a poison into the soil so nothing else will grow around them.  Keep that in mind if you plant them.  Speaking of sunflowers, Teddy Bear sunflowers are adorable and great short bushy plants.

And finally – composting is to your benefit and can be as simple as quite literally making a pile of compostable materials.  That’s what mine is, it’s a heap.  I put grass in there, branches, leaves, food scraps (no dairy or meat products), cardboard, paper, and much more.  It’s very simple.  As they say, compost happens.

The Most Important Thing I Learned

Every single seed grows into ONE plant.

While I knew this and I understood it, I still thought more seeds were better.  I would haphazardly sprinkle seeds all over the place … fine with things like zinnia or cosmos, not so much with things like broccoli or sunflowers.  Did you know a sunflower stalk can get as thick as a soda can?  You can’t have more than one of those per foot.

One package of seeds is more than sufficient for a bountiful harvest of that item.  Though I do suggest buying more packs of things like herbs because you want to stagger them and plant them every 2-3 weeks for a constant supply.  And they grow perfectly in pots (those long ones are best).

Where to Buy

I learned that bulbs from DutchBulbs.com are a great buy – especially in late spring when everything goes on sale and seeds from JohnnysSeeds.com are guaranteed to grow.  Unfortunately, almost all of my plants and trees from Arbor Day Foundation died, but they will be replacing them soon and at no charge.  I’ll let you know how those fare.  And don’t discount sellers on eBay. I found one of the best sellers on there – who, unfortunately, has gotten out of the business.  But there are many and the seeds are cheaper in bulk so share with others.

Overwintering and Saving Seeds

Now, once you have all of those amazing plants you can learn how to keep things like Gladiolus bulbs happy in the winter (by digging them up or very seriously insulating them – the best way is with straw, mulch, and the dead plants from the previous year laid over them), and how to save seeds from the amazing Zinnia that Johnny’s sells (wait until the flower dies and goes brown – it has to stay on the plant until it does this naturally, then just pop the heads off and pull all of the petals out – seeds are on the ends).

Once you buy all of these seeds and bulbs you’ll learn what works and is worth replanting, and what is worth giving up on.

Books

These are the books I’ve found helpful, and I disclose that these are affiliate links (money goes back into my garden). The top row are books that you have to buy the paperback version of, the bottom row are links to the paperback but they have Kindle versions (remember, Kindle can be installed on your computers, phones, iPad, etc. so you aren’t limited to a Kindle). Buy used when you can or get Kindle versions to save paper.