Last year was my first year attempting to garden. Despite my black thumb and my so-so efforts to find a good place to plant, I still had plenty of herbs and tomatoes to choose from. I enjoyed a BLT (made with that yummy faux turkey) with a homemade peppermint mocha almost every day of the summer and I was so thankful that I could pick those tomatoes out of my very own yard thankyouverymuch after seeing the prices at the grocery store. Ridiculous!
My dream was to supply the whole block with produce from my garden. Oh the shame, that I only had one bowl of tomatoes on any given day and very little to share. No baskets of produce overflowing, but I was so grateful to have my bowl of tomatoes to enjoy on my salad and for my sandwiches.
Year two and I am looking forward to another year playing in dirt, but this year I am going to make more of an effort and actually dig up some grass for a sunny spot in our yard. The spot I planted in lacked enough sunshine to get the perfect tomatoes although my parsley grew into giant shrubs while basking in all of that shade.
Here are some links I have been enjoying while doing my gardening research:
How to Build a Square Foot Garden (@ Frugal Dad)
Planting a Kitchen Garden (@ The Kitchn)
Recycle Stuff for Your Garden (@ Nature Moms)
Container Gardening (@ Frugal Life)
More on Building a Square Foot Garden (@ Being Frugal)
Time to Start the Seeds (@ You Grow Girl)
A Total Garden Transformation (@ The Lylah Blog)
Make Your Own Compost Bin- Easy (@ Shakyard)
Sound Off: Do you garden? What will you be planting this year? Have the rising grocery prices determined how much you will be doing this year? Share your thoughts!
This will be the first year for us to start a garden. I have wanted to for years, but haven’t had the courage to do so since the only plant that I have been able to keep alive is a bamboo plant. I bought my seed packets earlier this year and have designated a small area of our backyard flower bed for the garden. My dad is an excellent gardener, so I have already asked him to plan on visiting soon to help us get started. We are planning on nice weather later this week, so hopefully we will at least get the area prepped and ready for planting.
Thanks for the gardening links. I will have to read through them for suggestions.
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I’ve had a small garden for the past two summers. I enjoy gardening very much, and plan on planting several cherry tomatoes and green beans, maybe some onions. However, there are so many produce stands in our area, that it is much cheaper to buy tomatoes for canning than to try to grow them myself. Besides, I’ll happily help support the local farmers!
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I really, really want a garden, but it will have to wait until next year. Our house, which we just moved into, has a backyard that is pretty much a hazard. I won’t let my son go out there anymore because there are weeds that are so poky and poisonous that they leave little mosquito bites on you for several days!
Our goal for this year is to reclaim as much of the yard as possible from weeds. Next year, the garden. I can’t wait.
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I absolutely love to garden. It’s one of my favorite hobbies!!! Half of our backyard will be the garden. (Just moved) I normally grow whatever the kiddies and I really want!! Normally tomatoes, cucumbers, rhubarb etc. Grocery prices will probably cause me to expand my garden this year. It helped so much on my budget last year and the kiddies really enjoyed helping. They loved it so much they would bring in half the dirt with them!!!
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Thanks for mentioning my square foot garden – glad you enjoyed the article. We had a very late freeze here last night, and I covered the garden in an effort to protect my first sprouts. Hopefully they’ll make it through. My sugar snap peas and cucumbers have really taken off, and a couple tomato plants have just broken the surface. It really is a lot of fun, and a great project to do with the kids.
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I’ve dabbled a bit before. I usually grow tomatoes every year, but this is the first year I have a real garden. I have a black thumb, too, so I’m a little nervous.
I haven’t planted anything in my new garden box yet, because the weather is still really cold at times. Hopefully it warms up enough to plant soon.
Thanks for the link!
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Many thanks for the linky love! I am a black thumber too. Thanks to the internet it’s slowly turning green!
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I grew up helping my parents garden, and have kept up the tradition. We have always started our plants from seed to plant the exact varieties we wanted, but this year with a 1 yr old we are going to buy starts from a store (at least for the tomatoes and peppers). We will grow tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, and I think I’m going to try broccoli again this year. Happy gardening and thanks for the links!
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Last year was my first year seriously gardening. I had my father dig two large above ground planters and had a large amount of composted manure put in. The key is great dirt and the first year is an investment. AFter you only have to add compost most of which comes from my own kitchen. I had cucumbers, tomatoes and zuchinni coming out of the whazoo. I did can a great deal of pickles, sauce, and froze a tonne of zuchinni for my awesome zuchinni butterscotch bread. I plan to do pumpkins and beans as well next year. As well I did not use any pesticides and was lucky nothing ate all of it….aside from my dad who loves tomatoes. I can share my experiences if you would like
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This post made me kind of sad. =) We’re not sure yet when/where we’ll be moving, so planting a garden would be a bit precarious at this point!
We may do some potted veggies–we’ll see.
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I am attempting the same thing. In fact my parsley and basil have come back from the dead!!! Yup and they are huge already! I want to grow some tomoatos too and peppers! YUMMY
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hey amy ~ i’m so honored to be touted on your super cool mom blog. we’re pretty excited about our garden and garden guy (who is really musical hubs) is learning that green makes beautiful music too
….blessings on you and your gardening. lylah
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I love to garden. I have a very large perennial garden, a lavender garden, over 70 rose bushes, a herb garden, an experimental garden, and I guess you could just say I have a lot of plants and I stay pretty busy and amused out in the yard!Good luck with your tomatoes. This year I’m planting mine in 10 gallon plastic nursery pots and keeping them around the patio area.here in Southern California, there seem to be lots of critters that like to munch on my tomatoes!My favorite veggie to grow is squash, plant it, it grows like crazy and you can’t get rid of it. The neighbors run inside when they see you; fearing that you’ll come bearing more squash!Oh well!
njoy your gEarden.
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I took a hiatus from gardening when I was pregnant and had summer infants, but this year I’ll be going back to having a big garden. Food prices definitely play into it, especially for things like raspberries and Honeycrisp apples, and some things, like sweet corn and tomatoes, just taste better when you’ve grown them yourself. It’s also a good activity for us to do together as a family, from planning to planting to weeding to harvest.
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I am so so so excited about this post. My husband and I have been talking about doing a garden for the past month or so. I am excited to read the different sites you have found! THANKS!!
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This will only be my second year gardening, but I am so excited about it and perhaps a bit over-zealous as well!
I will be planting several kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers, a wide variety of herbs, lettuces, corn, carrots, turnips, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, 3 kinds of winter squash, huckleberries, and that might be it. LOL!
One thing that has definitely affected my desire to plant is the current economy and the rising costs of groceries. I think that it is high time to learn to be more sustainable, and this is the perfect place to start, in my opinion. I am also a huge advocate of natural/organic foods, and so growing my own for pennies is highly attractive to me!
I’ve just started this season, growing my seedlings and preparing my soil outside, but I plan to journal the progress of my garden all summer!
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I posted on this just a few weeks ago! With rising prices my biggest fear is unlike in the past where everyone had a garden to supply food during an economic crisis, so few of us do today. I read that many people are planning gardens to be proactive and frugal.
I have already planted raspberries (grandbabies of canes that I gave away a few years ago) and plan to plant as many veggies in pots and in my front garden as I can. We didn’t have enough tomatoes last year, and the jalapenos ended up being some other not spicy chile.
There is a site that has info on hydroponic hanging pots that you make from recycled materials. Haven’t tried it yet, but perfect for the apartment dweller: http://ohcripes.com/?page_id=47
Thanks for the links, I’ll be taking a look.
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