A Summary of Our Gardening Adventure

Last summer when we were planting our garden I promised that I would give updates about how the whole gardening thing was going.

Then reality hit.

Then I stopped blogging.

And there you go.....

Let me sum up.

The garden was pretty much a flop for a few reasons.

First of all, we planted it in the rockiest soil known to man. Okay, that might be a little bit of an overstatement but not much.

Secondly, we have this major ongoing project to get the irrigation water going in our yard. It is November and it is still not done. We were able to get irrigation water to the garden but the rest of our yard became home to thousands of weeds because we were not able to plant grass etc because of our never-ending project. This created a lot of extra work.

I started out the summer with great intentions. But then I found out after pulling my 10,000th weed that the pesky things were responsible for my severe case of asthma which was keeping me from being a mom, exercising, and functioning in general (such as walking across the room). So I had to quit working outside. My Mom took over with occasional help from my reluctant children.

Blah, blah, blah....

Long story short ( I did say this was a summary, right?) is that the only reason anything grew in our garden at all was because of my hardworking mom.

By some miracle we were able to grow many, many tomatoes. And with the help of an awesome neighbor, I was actually able to preserve a lot of them.

We also grew a lot of zucchini --not that that is at all impressive but we enjoyed eating it nonetheless. Especially the chocolate zucchini cake. Yum....

In addition to the tomatoes and zucchini we eeked out some cabbage, some onions, some yellow squash, and artichokes of all things.

-- and that was about it. I did get a handful of basil and cilantro before I managed to kill the plants.

But we were blessed by other people's efforts.

We were thankful to receive lots of potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and peppers from again, our awesome neighbors.

So how did my garden grow?

Well....

I tried. I pretty much failed.

But there is always next year!

Adventures in Gardening

The last few weeks we have slowly been getting our garden in.

I had the goal to have it all planted by June 15th.

I still have to plant corn, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, spinach, and peas.

Yes, I am a little late on this.

But what else is new?

I was born late.

Really, I was.

About two weeks.

It seems like my lot in life is to be late.

This may have something to do with the fact that I am really disorganized.

But I keep trying.

As you know, I am a Mormon.

Mormons are really into self-reliance and being prepared.

Therefore, we plant gardens.

“We” generally speaking. Not all Mormons plant gardens. But we are counseled by our Prophet to do so.

And so, every year our family makes an attempt at a garden.

Some have been more successful than others. This year we are in a new house, a house which has been built up on a foundation of shale infested soil.

And because I am so unorganized, I had no idea until I had already invested much time and money that our soil is quite possibly, the most rocky soil known to man.

Do you think I gave up?

Never!

I am stubborn like that.

My husband hauled in 20 year old sheep manure. I went to the greenhouse and bought multiple bags of organic compost and organic soil activator. My son tilled it all in. We are planting the garden in terraces and are in the middle of putting a water line in so we can actually have water. And we have been picking out rocks by the wheelbarrow-full.

It has been a daunting task.

(And is the major reason why I took a week off from blogging)

Do you think anything will grow in my garden?

Besides rocks, I mean.

Stay tuned to find out.

2 Comments

1. Anne
   Posted June 14, 2010 at 10:48 am

   You may be too late for peas and spinach. They are a cool weather crop. Many root crops are usually cool weather too. Depends on what grow zone you are in, but usually peas are planted very very early spring and beans are warm loving summer crops. Spinach may bolt right away with the heat (or if the ground dries it triggers them to bolt).. but you can save the seeds from them and plant them in late summer into fall when you plant garlic. Another one you can somewhat over winter with protection is kale.

   Good luck to you!

2. james5555
   Posted June 14, 2010 at 11:04 am

   Looks fantastic! Is it an organic garden. I love that you have a self reliance mindset. Great stuff, keep it up!