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| My new garden |
As B would say, planting one's own garden is very "hippie-dippy," especially for me. Embracing this idea, my husband and I donned our semi-matching tie-dyed shirts (oh, yes, we did) and made absolute dorks of ourselves by going to our local gardening shop and adopting starter plants and a hot-pink tomato cage (!) to put in a brand new home in our newly-cleared backyard soil bed.
I'm crossing my fingers that we won't get another snow so that my little plant kids survive through the summer. If you're interested and have the space, here's how I made my tiny treasure trove of what (hopefully) will become my own grocery store. I'm sure it's riddled with mistakes, but it's my first time, so go easy on me, or I'll sick my hoe on you.
To have:
- approximately 4' x 8' of garden space, filled with soil
- gardening gloves
- a small soil rake
- a small gardening hoe (Bonus: You can ask for this by saying, "Honey, you know where mah hoe be at?")
- a normal-sized yard shovel
- 1 tomato cage
- 12 plant stakes (we made our own from trimmed tree branches)
- 1 young tomato plant*
- 4 young cherry tomato plants*
- 4 young cucumber plants*
- 4 young yellow banana pepper plants*
- 4 young cilantro plants*
- chive seeds/young plants*
- cayenne pepper seeds*
- extra topsoil for fertilizing and building up your plant mounds
- water
To do:
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| The chives' plot area |
1. Arrange a 4'x 1' area on both the right and left sides of your plot.
2. On the left side, plant your cayenne pepper seeds (1-3 seeds, 6" apart) about 5 mm below the top of the soil. Cover with fresh topsoil. Water until moist. On the right side, do the same thing with the chive seeds/young plants. Chives are (apparently) really hearty, so you don't have to be too careful with them. They're the only plants that survived in our plot over the past 5 winters with absolutely no attention.
3. Parallel to the chives, dig a vertical row deep enough to really root in your tomato cage and four stakes in a circular shape (to mimic the shape of the cage). Replace the soil to make a flat surface.
4. Transfer your tomato plants, one at a time, and make little topsoil mounds around them, being sure to tighten up the soil around them. I planted the regular tomato plant (caged in) first. Then, I planted the four cherry tomato plants in a circular shape (each one with its own stake) about a foot below the larger tomato plant. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to space things out a bit more, but, again, this is sort of an experimental thing, being that it's a learning process.
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| The tomato plants |
5. To the left of the tomato plants, make 3 horizontal rows, digging deep enough to get those stakes in. Line 4 stakes, equidistant from one another in two of the three horizontal rows. Make a flat surface again over the stakes before transplanting the young saplings (I have no idea if that's what they're called--it just seemed right.).
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| The three horizontal rows |
6. In any order you wish, transfer your young cilantro plants into one horizontal row (the one without the stakes), your banana pepper plants into another horizontal row, and finally your cucumber plants into the last horizontal row. Again, be sure to make the compact (but not too tight) topsoil mounds around each of the young plants so that they feel all nestled in and secure.
7. Water everything, and then marvel in the glow of your soon-to-be spread of home-grown goodies!
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| My future produce aisle |
