You don’t know what you don’t know

Starting a garden:
The things I have learned so far

You can plan (and plant!) all you want, and research until your eyes bleed, but you will never know the ups and downs coming in your garden, and you don’t know what you don’t know. I have been outside most days, and not one day to day is the same. Every day changes and then I have to change with it or rethink what I was doing. A plant you put in the ground in the first week of May and looks great might start to yellow because it was raining too much in your area… Then you notice little holes in the leaves. Dag nabbit. Now I have to go find out what the heck is going on here.

I know what I know, and I know the delays that have come my way are mostly because I am doing this all by hand, with no real help. My kids are too young still to really help, and my husband works all day. I have been planning this garden since January and I wanted to have a farm stand open with heaping baskets of vegetation soon! It’s mid June now and I might get a couple of potted plants out by the side walk tomorrow. I’m learning to be okay with things not getting done RIGHT NOW!!!, but it dosen’t stop my brain. “If I just do this until I fall over, when I wake up, I can just start gardening more!” I think. “That’ll make this all happen faster!”

I have had to plan when I can and dig and when I could muster the energy. “Well, I can just work at this from eight to five, and then get to dinner.” “Wait, keeping the kids alive needs to happen during then” I think.  As I’m trying to get this all done, making sure they are cared for and nourished comes first. Being a good parent is hard…

I have learned so much in the last four months.

So I will be doing this for at least another year to see if I can become better at it. I am always trying to be better than I was before. It is how I was made. So if you want to start a farm stand or a garden next year here are four things you should think about.

1. Decide if you want a container garden or a in-ground garden. When you have, make sure to test the soil to see if it will work for what you want to grow or if you need to buy soil.
   
2. Compost whatever you can get your hands on! Even now you can start and compost is free! There’s so much around you that you can take advantage of like: used grounds from coffee houses, leaves from a neighbors yard, your scraps from the kitchen. The sooner you start the sooner you will have some awesome stuff!
3. Extend the season! As your  summer starts to wind down, make a cheap hoop house for the fall using this plan. This will help you get the most yield this year and let you plant earlier next year!
4. Collect milk jugs and other good sized plastic containers. Start winter sowing using these from the previous year. I’m really interested in this idea, because you won’t need to harden your plants in the spring, but just found out about it. I think this will make my garden even more amazing!
   

These four things I wish I had started with. With this bit of info, you will definitely be a step up on me!