Thursday, April 28, 2011

Our Attempt at Gardening

This is our little attempt at our first garden. My husband and I really knew nothing about gardening until we tried for the first time this year. This is the first time we have lived in a house with a yard, so of course, being the little cook that I am, I wanted a garden!! How awesome would it be to just walk outside my back door and get some lettuce, green peppers, and tomatoes and not have to treck to the store and pay outrageous prices?
But, we didn't do too much research besides talking to people and finding out how other Oklahomians have planted their gardens. So this post will mainly be me telling you what we have done so far, and then you commenting and telling me what we can do better! Okay, let's go.
I was really excited about gardening, but if I'm gonna be honest, my husband has done the majority of the work. He was so excited about having a garden that he dug it up for me, planted almost everything, and has worked hard to water it. So, can I really call it my garden?
The area in the shade (pictured above) was already dug up for a garden when we moved in. But the problem is that it doesn't get much sunlight. We were told that planting marigolds as a border for the garden would attract the right kinds of insects that would help our garden. So we did that (but most of them didn't get much sunlight and died already) and then Tad dug up another section (in the sun in the above picture) since it got the sunlight all day.
We have planted tomato and green pepper plants, strawberries, watermelon, carrots, lettuce (??), oregano, cilantro, parsley, basil (??), and cucumbers. It has been really dry here so we had to water it a lot, but lately we have gotten a lot of rain, so hopefully the garden is happy! Now, problems. And hopefully some of you have answers.

  1. We think that the birds have eaten all the leaves off our tomato plants. The green pepper leaves are still there, but the tomato leaves are gone.
  2. After all the rain, nasty mushrooms have sprouted up all in our garden and poking through our watermelon area.
  3. When the wind blows, we get lots of "tree turds" as my dad would call it, in our garden. I raked them out the other day. Should we leave them in there? Is it good for the plants?
  4. It's hard to tell at this point what is a weed, and what is something we planted coming out of the ground. With it being our first year gardening, we aren't sure and don't want to pull something out that is food!
  5. Should we replant marigolds as a border again, in the sunlight, to yield better results in our garden?
So, these are our issues to date. I am really excited to see stuff growing already, and really hope we can get something to grow in our first garden!! Anyone have any advice on composting? I think we are gonna start that soon. So this is the new adventure we have taken on, and hopefully there will be positive posts to come about our blooming garden!! Hopefully!!
Area where we planted strawberries and watermelon, also pictured are the dying marigolds and the "tree turds."

Head on over to Alicia's Homemaking to check out more people's adventures for the week! Click below!!

9 comments:

  1. We would always put a marker right by the seed and then not pull up what came up near it. It took a a good month before we were confident what was food and what was weed. Also, I've never planted flowers along with my produce, so no help there. Hopefully you'll be able to find out what gardeners suggest.

    And good luck!

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  2. Thanks, Sarah!!! We will have to wait a couple more weeks to see what comes out of the ground, and can hopefully tell what to pull and what not to pull!

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  3. Ooooh, I'm excited for you!
    We didn't plant from seed (except zucchini), and since we're doing container gardening, there aren't many weeds. But Sarah's advice sounded good!
    I'm clueless about the tree turds. ?
    I hope to hear positive updates in the future!

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  4. Hi Stephanie. I saw on twitter that you had questions about your garden. Maybe I can help. The "tree turds" all contain seeds, so don't let them stay in the garden or you'll have tree sprouts. The best way to control weeds is to be sure to mulch it quickly before seeds germinate(sprout). Marigolds are great in the garden as they keep bugs away. Come see my garden blog for more help! www.mygardensweetgarden.com

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  5. You're cracking me up. I love gardening and wish I could come and help!

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  6. I have no clue about gardening. My dad planted some tomatoes and squashes for us, and if my daughter didn't remind me, they would never get watered. We yielded about 300 tomatoes from 5 plants the 2nd year! I have no clue about zones, last frost, etc. I think the rains have finally stopped over here in Northern California, but it is still really cold, so I think we might wait a bit longer before we dig. A few gardening ladies from my church just say to use Miracle Gro. =p They get tons of artichokes, peas, beans, and a few other things. I didn't know about the marigold trick...I will have to check into that. Good luck! Sorry I don't have any advice.

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  7. Can't wait to see how it turns out!

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  8. I grew up in Oklahoma and remember strawberries grew well in our backyard, though I don't think my parents were the ones who planted them. I hope your plants grow and thrive this year. Kids make gardening more fun!

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  9. I've got nothing in the way of advice, but find others advice helpful! I'd like to try tomatoes, they are soo yummy right off the plant in the summer. Please keep us updated on your garden progress.

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