How does your garden grow? With silverbells and cockle shells...
My grandmother used to say that nursery rhyme quite a bit. Almost every time we were outside, piddling in her flowers or some such thing, which was daily.
It's taken on a whole new meaning for me this year, as 2020 will be the first year I am earnestly attempting a vegetable & herb garden from seed. Instead of "how does your garden grow," I've been asking myself, "WILL my garden grow?"
I remember my mother having one vegetable garden when we lived on the back of my grandmother's farm one year. She grew a LOT of different kinds of peppers, some tomatoes and cucumbers, but I can't remember much else. And I know she only did it one or two years. I never remember my grandmother growing her own vegetables. Not to say that she never did, but I don't think so. In fact, she never really had much to eat in her house, at least not that was appealing to a child. Her 'specialty' was a broccoli cheddar soup, which was, to say the least, an acquired taste. (Ask ANYONE in my family, they would agree.) She did help put together a cookbook with recipes from many of the Lexington and surrounding area's horse farms all contributing a recipe. The recipe for Hardboot Farm was a gazpacho, to be enjoyed after tennis. Soup...evidence points to lots of soups, but much not growing much of her own ingredients to make the soup.
Both ladies were more of the shrubs, trees, plants & flowers type gardeners, so I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from other sources on this project. And there's a bit of added pressure, as a portion of my livelihood is contingent on a successful harvest.
I've been poring over blogs, old library books, articles and back issues of Better Homes & Gardens for several months. I've purchased pre-cut kits for raised beds, a number of different containers and seeds & soil.
I planted a few egg cartons' worth of seeds starting the first week of February. I labeled with the date on little wooden sticks. I was excited. I was ahead of the game. The first batch didn't germinate, not a single one. I realized I FORGOT TO WATER THEM. I'm trying to get a gardening/horticulture business off the ground, and I forgot to water the seeds.
I've been (admittedly) easily distracted since I found out I was pregnant 13 months ago- I got pregnancy brain, and I've yet to recover my memory. It was never that sharp to begin with, but it's gotten way out of hand. I forget a lot of things- add these seeds to the list. I thought I'd watered them, moved them to their spot and on to the next thing.
The second batch has shown some promise- photos shown. It's amazing what proper watering and care does to move along the germination process. Now, I'm just waiting for the ground and outside to warm up and stay warm, which for Cincinnati, could be April. I'm also looking into fencing to go around my gardens because we have deer. I loved Doe-ris and her fawns when we moved into this house last year, but I am sure the first tomato plant they eat this year will have me building a deer blind in my back yard to take them out.
Follow along if you will, I'm sure I'll have more than a few mishaps along the way, hopefully we'll both learn something. Disclaimer: No animals or seeds will be intentionally harmed during this process.
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