Preparing My Garden for the Bountiful Harvest

Text by M.   

  As a gardener, you must plan everything out step by step lol. This is the part I am not good at.   

  I always buy my plants without a list. I know what I want, I just am not able to remember what I already bought & what I have not bought yet. I love getting the most from my yard. I have designed it to where all I have to do is step outside my door to my very own little garden of fresh grown vegetables.  

  Preparing the soil, I have rototilled it a few times before putting in any mixture of fresh healthy soil full of nutrients. I then plan out where each crop would grow the best. That depends on: sunlight, drainage, what you plant next to each plant, how far apart the plant needs to be from others, the best route into your garden so you are not stepping all over zucchini vines or whatever else.   

  Last year, I decided I was going to plant a watermelon. I asked my friends for their advice on where I should plant it. Lol that would have turned out to be a good idea, only if I was going to take their advice & use it lol.

  Their advice was for me to plant it clear up by my lilac bushes. Now I could not wrap around my mind why anybody would want to grow watermelon next to or near my beautiful lilacs, lol so like usual I did What I Wanted lol. (By the way, that usually doesn't turn out for me too well lol)! 

  So I planted it right outside my door in my garden, lol that was a huge mistake. The watermelon vines grew through my garden fence, all over my other vegetables. I moved the fence over just a bit to check on one of the watermelons. 

  The watermelon broke off its vine, went rolling out into the street lol. Traffic stopped to allow me to chase after it lol. I am awfully fortunate that I don't mind looking foolish when I believe in something lol.              

  Anyways, back to my story. This year I planted zucchini, acorn squash, yellow crookneck squash, jalapeños, hot banana peppers, sweet red peppers, sweet yellow peppers, purple kale, green kale, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes & cherry tomatoes. Now I have to mark on the calendar the date I planted each crop & then count out how many days until it’s ready to harvest, water it, weed it & possibly till it again.  

  There is something beautiful about giving yourself another option to help you to become a healthier human being. Think about it, all that fresh rich soil that I have tilled both by hand & by rototiller. I laid the garden out with my own thoughts on how each plant would grow the best.  

  I get to choose what I want to put in my garden, where I put it, how to care for it, what I do with it after I harvest it. I am choosing what I am putting in my own body. Having a garden is very calming to me. Each year gets easier, for I am learning from past miscalculations on where & when vegetables are at their best.  

  Something so simple as toiling the soil, planting two or three seeds in a mound (if you do seeds). I myself do not do seeds because my mind & timing don't work that way lol.   Yet anyways, watering & checking on it each day, I am hoping to freeze & can my own food that I have planted & grown, along with offering some of the produce to nearby neighbors. ­  

  Are you planting a garden?  

  If so, is it your first one?  

  What did you plant & how did it make you feel, eating your very own grown vegetables? 

  I do enjoy hearing back from our readers, so please feel free to comment with your thoughts or anything. Until next time... M.