Welcome back! Like I said in my previous post, with the warm June weather and plenty of water my garden began growing with surprising success. I say surprising because this was the first time I’d ever really tried to grow anything, especially at this scale. It was amazing to see the progress as the days and weeks went by and wonder what sort of overall success I was going to have.
It seemed that the whole garden was growing every day, with a new addition I squeezed in once a week. We found a blackberry plant and three lilies at a farmers market, a pepper plant and a pot of salvia at Lowe’s and I planted a second pot of pansies to add some more color. As the different plants began to develop I noticed that there were small holes at the base of certain things like my chives, one of the tomato plants and in one of the large planter boxes. It would seem our garden had a visitor.
Whenever we start something as a beginner there is bound to be instances of setbacks or things that don’t turn out quite like we’d hope. This was definitely true with my garden, as I watched both types of peas, my beets and my eggplants either stop growing at a certain point or in the case of the peas the leaves turned yellow and the whole plant slowly died. As spots opened up I replaced what had been with something new, again with mixed results. Gone were the peas to be replaced in one box with a second planting and in the other box with cucumber plants, storm burst verbena, zinnia and anise hyssop. As the days went by the number of bumblebees and dragonflies multiplied and we received daily visits from rufous hummingbirds.
The days of July saw many of the plants growing toward maturity, the gerbera daisies now consistently had big, yellow blooms, the sungolds were coming in small, bright orange and yummy and the morning glories quickly overtook their trellis and formed buds. I also added marigolds and three horseradish plants in an attempt to discourage the chipmunks but while it may work for some they were very persistent.
The Sunflowers
Watching the sunflowers grow was a both satisfying and slightly humorous experience. It was almost like those experiments in grade school where you mix vinegar and baking soda and it overflows everywhere. When planting we intermixed several varieties such as Mammoth and Mexican Sunflowers. The stalks just grew and grew and then, just when we thought it wouldn’t happen, the heads formed.
The entire garden seemed to peak at once so instead of a ton of words, I’ll show you.
This was such an amazingly rewarding experience and I’m so excited to see what my gained knowledge helps me accomplish next year. The hours spent in the garden proved that what you put into something directly relates to what you get out of it. I’ve learned that dreaming is no substitute for hard work and the focus to accomplish what you’ve set your mind to. Talk soon
MI Kitchen 