My First Garden

I’m so excited, over the last few weeks I have been working on planting my first very own garden!  It really is pretty amazing to get your hands a little dirty and work in the soil planting seeds and seedlings.  And it is even more amazing when the seeds you have planted actually sprout!  It’s like my own little miracle in the corner of my back yard!

About 2 1/2 weeks ago I planted 4 romaine lettuce plants, 2 spinach plants and a cilantro plant.  I also planted two rows of sugar snap pea seeds and a row of carrot seeds.  Last week, my little seedlings came up!  About a week and a half ago I planted a tomato plant and 4 banana pepper plants.  This past weekend at the Farmer’s Market we picked up another tomato plant, some cherry tomato plants, chocolate and red pepper plants, a basil plant, and some zucchini seeds that we are going to plant this week. 

I really, really wanted to plant a garden this year, but when we got started, we weren’t really sure how it would work out because we don’t have full sun in our backyard.  We have a huge maple tree and two pine trees that shade most of our backyard for most of the day.  But, there was a cute little garden bed that was made by the previous owners, so we just decided to plant some things and see how they turned out.  Then, my wonderful hubby also made me a small square foot garden box that we put in another area of our yard, so we’re now planning to plant in both the garden bed and the square foot garden box and see how they compare to each other.  Also, I decided to plant my tomatoes and peppers in one of our front yard flower beds because we get full sun in the front and I really want to make sure that those do well.  So, all in all I have 3 different areas of garden this summer, and I’m so excited to see how green my thumb is and to grow food for our family.

I’m already having a little trouble because something ate 2 of my romaine plants! 🙁  I am pretty sure it was bunnies because we have lots of those around here and bunnies like to eat lettuce.  I was a little afraid of that when I planted the romaine, but figured that lots of people must plant lettuce in their gardens and somehow keep the bunnies away, so if you have any tips or tricks for keeping the critters out of my garden, please share!!

Here is what I have planted or am planning to plant:
-romaine lettuce plants
-spinach plants
-carrot seeds
-sugar snap pea seeds
-tomato plants
-pepper plants
-zucchini plants
-cilantro and basil plants

I wanted to start off small this first year and not overwhelm myself with too much.  I also have a very active almost 1-year old who needs most of my attention when we are outside, so I didn’t want to have too much work to do. I wanted to plant things that we love to eat and would use up if we had lots and lots of them (my hope!).  I wanted to try some things from seed, but I wanted to use some plants as well because this is my first time and I’m trying to increase my chances for success, but also because I wasn’t on top of it enough to start my seedlings inside – that will have to be a goal for next year.  We’ll see how it goes, and I’ll post updates along the way.  I really am just so excited about starting the process.  It really is amazing to be able to watch your seeds sprout and your plants grow with nothing more than soil, sunlight and water.  I’m sure it will be just as amazing as we eat our first meal with salad and veggies fresh from our garden!

 What are you planting in your garden this year?
 
—————————————————————————————————-
Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If you’d like to read more about my journey to becoming Frugally Green, please subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

Last month’s Change Challenge was Read the Ingredients! You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here. Check back later this week for May’s Change Challenge!

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

This post is linked to the Mom’s 30-Minute Blog Post Challenge.