A Wee Tale for You: My First Garden

This year, I decided it was time to plant my first garden. Because we rent our house, I didn't think I could dig up the lawn, so I opted for things that I could grow in containers. I figured I could give it a shot and see how things went.

So - one Saturday in April, I hopped on the bus and then another bus to go to the large garden centre south of the city. I probably should have done a bit more research before I got there to see what grows well in England and in containers. But time didn't allow for that and so I wandered in hopes that the vegetables would 'speak' to me and provide me with some inspiration.

I eventually decided to stick with plants rather than starting from seeds. Since it's just Luke and me - I didn't think that I'd need the number of plants that would come from a packet of seeds. And I tried to think about vegetables that I thought Luke would eat. That narrowed down my choices a bit - but not too much.

I knew that tomatoes were definitely going to be a significant part of the garden. You can't get anything better than a fresh from the garden tomato. When I was small, my grandad grew so many tomato plants that he'd set up plywood and sawhorses in the basement for the tomatoes to wait until it was time to can them. I'm pretty sure that I ate my weight in tomatoes each summer. I always swiped the small ones because I thought no one would notice. But the canker sores that eventually developed definitely gave me away. I'm pretty sure Grandad didn't mind. The hard part was deciding on the varietals. There are so many! I ended up with a couple in an attempt to diversify for success. We'll see how it goes.

Courgettes (also known as zucchini) also made the top of the list. I picked up a couple green and a yellow. I also planted a cucumber - but it has unfortunately not survived. I may try to pick up another if I can find one closer to home.

The other veg to make it into the garden are snap peas, garlic, red and yellow bell peppers, a hot pepper and spinach. I also purchased a few herbs - basil, coriander (cilantro) and chives. I don't really ever use chives - but it looked fun.

Because the spinach was already little plants when I transferred it into the container, it was the first to be ready for harvest. We went away to Germany towards the end of April and I was sure that I'd be able to harvest spinach when we got home. Instead I came home to find out that my spinach had already been harvested - by slugs! And this first time gardener was not happy. I have since been warring with the slugs. Not sure who is winning yet but there are definitely four casualties dehydrating today. Take that slugs!

So, after about a week, I was finally able to harvest some of my spinach. There is definitely a sense of accomplishment that comes from eating something that you helped to grow. I'm now able to harvest every couple of days and I use the spinach for salads or in my omelets. I'm still finding some leaves that have been eaten, but it's not near as bad.

And other than the cucumber, everything is thriving. The yellow squash had a bit of a rough start, but he's starting to fill out now.

I had to stake the beans a little over a week ago because they've started to wrap around each other and today I did the tomatoes. And both are starting to flower which I'm pretty sure is a good sign.