Gardening | Pasta Princess and More

On April 10th I posted “My First Vegetable Garden – If I Plant it, It Will Grow”. What a difference 7 weeks has made in the growth of my vegetables. My mantra “if I plant it, it will grow” is working. Having a vegetable garden would definitely go on my list of “Why have I never done this before?!”. I’m sure we all have those “lists“. What are some of the things that would go on your list of “Why have I never done this before”?

I’m just happy that I have discovered the joys of vegetable gardening now! Who would have thought that a little girl and grown woman that doesn’t like to get dirt all over her hands and under her nails would fall in love with vegetable gardening?! It happened … each morning now I walk down to look at my vegetables and observe them and view the changes. It is amazing to me that something that I planted from seed and nourished has grown and continues to grow. It truly is nourishment for the soul. I never “got it” until I actually started my own vegetable garden. I find immense pleasure in watching my vegetables grow and in watering and caring for them. I had my first lettuce salad from the garden and an arugula and lettuce turkey sandwich – that was one of the best turkey sandwiches I’ve had! I also discovered that arugula is one of the fastest growing vegetables from seed … it should be ready to harvest 30 days from planting.

Take a morning walk with me and see what’s growing in the gardens.

Peas, Arugula, Potatoes, Kale, Beans, Eggplant, Beets, Tomatoes, Sage, Lemon Basil, Lime Basil, Peppers, Cauliflower, Lettuce, Swiss chard

Radish, Carrots, Purple Basil

Isn’t this the most beautiful color of lettuce?!

Growing in a container I have Citrus Mint.

And … Chocolate Mint. This smells heavenly!

I hope you enjoyed the walk through the vegetable garden.

May all your gardens grow well and flourish!

I could not help but think of the line from the movie “A Field of Dreams” “If you build it they will come” as I was planting my first vegetable garden. I said to Tim, “If I plant it, it will grow”. People have told me not to be disappointed if my garden doesn’t do so well the first year. If my veggies don’t do well this summer I will be disappointed! That’s just the way I am. However, I’m remaining optimistically confident and repeating my mantra “If I plant it, it will grow”.

Topsy Turvy Hanging Frame Tim built last year. We grew tomatoes and peppers in topsy turvys and had great success.

I have only grown tomatoes, peppers and herbs, never a vegetable garden, and never from seed. I started looking on the Internet for beginning gardening advice, tips, etc. and discovered a wealth of information. Seriously … what can’t you find on the Internet! What interested me most was Square Foot Gardening. The square foot garden is a raised bed and is sectioned off in a grid of square feet. The premise is you are able to harvest a lot more produce in a smaller contained area with less work and less weeds – no more row gardening. For example, you would plant 16 carrots in one square, larger plants like tomatoes, one per square. Sounds perfect to me! Mel Bartholomew wrote his first book on this entitled “Square Foot Gardening“ and a wealth of information about Square Foot Gardening is also available on-line. I purchased Mel’s second book “All New Square Foot Gardening”.

(I bought this small 4×4 raised bed kit, I didn’ t have the heart to ask Tim to build me another bed, at least not this year!)

I couldn’t contain my excitement and as you might imagine Tim was just thrilled to be involved in yet another one of my projects, which meant he was building my garden! Ha ha … there is a downside to being so talented at building and fixing things around the home! I really do think he enjoys building me things even though he may grumble at first. He constructed my raised bed and even dug up and tilled the grass for me, set the frame down once it was built, and filled the bed with soil we had delivered. Of course I was out there watching . . . we joked that I made a good supervisor! Just like road crews, one person working and 3 standing around watching (me and Irish & Bailey were watching). Just like any good supervisor I did my homework, read and planned the garden. I never had any idea that vegetables had companion plants and that the vegetables needed to be rotated each year. The rest of my job was easy and fun; staining the bed, writing names of vegetables on my seed marker signs and planting. As a supervisor, I will also be in charge of watering, fertilizing and pulling any weeds that may make their way into my garden.

Even though this is my first garden and I really knew zilch about gardening, you could say I started gardening at a young age, helping my dad plant seeds in his vegetable garden. He had a huge garden that he maintained for years and my mom froze and canned vegetables.

A garden that massive was a tremendous amount of work and we all helped out and pitched in. When I told my mother I was building a raised bed garden I think she was surprised, but pleased. She said when I was younger I never liked working in the garden and getting my hands dirty. I still don’t like to get my hands dirty and dirt under my nails … but that’s what gardening gloves are for!

I’m so excited to be starting a vegetable garden – just the thought of being able to pick fresh produce in my backyard produces a smile! And now … one more time I’ll repeat my mantra “If I plant them they will grow!”

My spring flowers are growing beautifully!