When I was a child in elementary school, we had a garden. I was pretty young and I don’t think it lasted more than a few years. It bordered our neighbor’s fence. I remember wishing we could ask for the melons back that had grown into our yard. I remember wondering why we had so many radishes and wanting to grow something else. But that’s really it. It wasn’t something I grew up with. It was only the last few years that I started wanting to grow food myself. I started with herbs. I killed them. I progressed on to care for my friend’s lemon tree. It lives but I wouldn’t say it prospered. Were these signs? No way!
So, when we were looking for a house in Wilmington, we specifically had our eye out for a yard and a landlord that wouldn’t mind a garden. Plus isn’t it cute?!
I voted for a small raised bed garden that wouldn’t take up too much of our time. I was worried about getting in over our heads. I was overruled.
It’s a little bigger than I intended…
I would guess the garden’s about 12 x 15. It feels pretty enormous when I’m weeding. It pretty much always needs weeding. Please don’t look too closely at the photos. I’m learning!
(These are from Easter weekend.)
For the most part we’ve targeted our favorite foods: spinach, carrots (not doing too well), purple and yukon potatoes, peas, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, beets and arugula. There’s also a basil plant and some green onions in there as well. I don’t think Tyler will be partaking in any zucchini and beet eating but I think I can handle that!
We’ve also started a small compost bin out of an old plastic bin I had previously stored my crafts in. It was a lot more fun when our landlord in Austin worked for Compost Peddler. They provided the bucket and a paper bag each week when they picked up the our food scraps. No smell, no ick. Then our landlord would bring compost home sometimes! Convenient.
Pretty, pretty progress!
We’re hoping that if our garden is productive, we’ll be doing some canning this summer. Fingers crossed!
Seeking Misadventure 