Growing up, my family once had a garden. I don’t remember what we grew or really any of the details, so I have never had a love for it. It always seemed like so much work! But then last spring I realized that I love the taste of garden-fresh carrots and I noticed the ones from the store have a totally different flavor that is just not as good. My love for these fresh carrots put me on the path to cultivating my own garden and started a new obsession. Plus, I needed a hobby that I could still do at home.
Now, I know nothing about plants. I barely keep my flower bed alive so I needed some serious help. I started off by going to a free class at Town and Country Gardens on box gardening. They explained how to zone out plants in your boxes, what to plant and when, and how to incorporate trellises. Everyone there seemed to already know so much about gardening and I was very overwhelmed. So, I did what any sensible woman would do, I went to Pinterest! But that was even more overwhelming and I decided to just go ahead and try it and hope that something grew.
I narrowed it down to wanting garden boxes that were raised because I have a dog that I knew would dig everything up. My husband is great at building things and he made me two boxes out of scrap 2x4s that we had lying around. They turned out awesome! We built them 2’ by 5’ because that was the size of the metal wiring that we found at Home Depot to go in the bottom. We then lined the box with gardening paper and filled it with dirt and potting mix. I was ready to start planting!
I talked to my grandpa, who is a pretty good gardener himself, and got an idea of when to put certain plants in the ground. I went to the store and bought some that were already plants as well as a few packs of seeds. (I bought way too many seeds, by the way, for just two 2’ by 5’ boxes. Just get one pack of each!) I made a diagram on a piece of paper that mapped out where I would plant everything. Each plant type had a zone of about 1 square foot. Then, following my diagram, I planted it all. I took a picture of the boxes and wrote down what plants were where so that I have a reference for next year. I also read the description of how deep to plant and how much spacing was needed between plants. I ended up planting zucchini, carrots, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, and broccoli.
At first, there wasn’t much progress, but once those peas poked through the dirt, I was so excited and satisfied. Even if they didn’t produce much, I didn’t completely kill them! I became dedicated to watering every day and talking to them because that makes them grow faster. That’s what the experts say anyway. I never knew I could care for something almost as much as I care about feeding my own son.
I did get a pretty good crop for my very first time. Some did well; others, not so much. Remember how carrots are what brought me to gardening? Well, they disappointed me. They grew and tasted good, but they were all tiny. I guess it could count as a mini success. My broccoli never produced, my peppers all went bad, and my cucumbers tasted sour. But, I grew a ton of tomatoes! I even figured out how to can them so that I can use them in cooking later on. And my one zucchini plant gave me enough to make probably 15 loaves of zucchini bread. I loved picking sugar snap peas and eating them straight off the vine.
I had low expectations this year since it was my first time, so I was just so happy when any of the plants produced anything. I’ve learned some things that will hopefully help for next time, such as to thin out carrots when they start to pop up so that they grow bigger. I loved having a reason to go outside every day and have something to check on. Growing a garden really does bring happiness and I loved having a hobby that was just for me. I should probably start planning my garden for next year because I guess you’re supposed to plant in different places every year.
So what did gardening for the first time teach me about life as a mom? It taught me to just go for it and not worry about every little detail. New things are hard and I think we all feel intimidated when starting something new, but we don’t have to be experts the first time around. I think gardening is a lot like becoming a mom. There’s so much information out there about how to do it right and how to get the best child. We get to focus on the details of our own experience as a mother and in the end, we get to enjoy the fruits of our labor. And hopefully those kids of ours grow to become good and responsible adults!
