Our Gardening Journey week 5

Our Gardening Journey week 5

So this weeks post is going to be a little bit different. Instead of an update on our plants I thought that I would do a mini series of our yard. My husband has been working on this project for a few weeks and you can say that it is a work in progress.

So our yard is a pretty good size yard with a lot of room for our son and dog to run around. However, we have this huge problem that is an eyesore. We have a side hill with tall grass and poisonous plants. At the top of the side hill is what looks like brown vines. What is underneath those vines is a barb wired fence. we can’t take out this fence because the people that own the property behind us own it. However, my husband is week by week cleaning the hill.

Before

The first thing my husband did was to kill a majority of the poisonous plants and to cut down the tall grass using a weed whacker. The next thing that he is planning to do is to plow the hill to get all the weeds up. In the fall we are going to put down a protective barrier so that weeds don’t come up. My plan is to hopefully plant my garden in that side hill because it does get the best sunlight.

Oh, did I also mention the iron metal pole that is sticking out on the hill as well? If I showed you in person you would easily be able to see it but in these pictures it is hard to find. The pole is so deep that he couldn’t get it up and so he had to use a saw to cut it down.

After

Overall, my husband has done a really good job with cleaning up the eyesore of a hill. Also, one thing to add is that the construction company added that tree on the hill where the pine straw is. Either it will come out completely or maybe it will stay. Even though we still have a long way of cleaning up the hill I’m excited to have a garden of our own.

Our Gardening Journey week 3

Our Gardening Journey week 3

So I’ve made a lot of changes this week with my little plants. Some have grown a lot and some not very much. I’ve learned what has worked and what mistakes I’ve made so far.

First thing to start off with, I bought more supplies. I didn’t buy them to start off with because I wanted to wait and see what I would need all while trying not to break the bank. I ended up buying a few things such as potting soil, self watering indoor containers, a potted plant cage container and more pellets. The potting soil that I bought is one that can be used for indoor and outdoor plants. Which is great because I want to hang some flower pots outside on our front porch. I used espoma organic mix for indoor and outdoor pots. I wish I would have bought more bags of this mix.

The second thing that I bought is self watering containers. Eventually I want to use these to grow herbs inside but for right now they are being used to help grow cucumbers and basil. It’s already been a few days and I can already see a lot of growth happening. I even see new stems growing after I potted these. I honestly love these little containers cause all you need to do is just water them in the smaller black hole once a week or once a month depending on the plant you have.

As you can see I became resourceful and used a plastic fork from my son’s recent birthday party to help hold up this cucumber plant.

The third thing that I bought is a pack of 3 plant cages. The bottom of the plant cage is what looks like a big black bag that you will plant your plants in. Most plant cages are expensive but I decided to go with this one because of the cost and the fact that you get 3 of them. I haven’t used these just yet but when I do I will post them. Below are the ones that I bought. These are the cheapest ones that I bought.

Lastly, I bought more refill jiffy pellets on Amazon to replant plants that did not grow the first time around. So far I see a lot more growth this time around. I think these pellets are better to start off with then the ones that already come with the containers. I didn’t have a lot of growth the last time.

This week I learned what I could have done differently. Well for starters I soaked my sweet Williams and green bean seeds overnight in warm water. I think that was my biggest issue with them not growing. I don’t know if it will make a difference but I figured that I would try it. I also am kind of experimenting to see it the green beans and sweet William seeds will germinate in my little green house or in a cup that I put some potting soil in. I also think that I over watered them too much too and that may have also killed them too.

Green beans

Overall, I know I’ve learned what I can do better for this round of seeds. I want to know what mistakes did you make when you first started gardening. Please add them in the comments! I have also added in the links where to find them on Amazon!