In no particular order, I want to share 10 things I’ve learned since we started our gardening journey this spring. When I say “first time gardener”, I really mean it! My husband and I both grew up with our parents gardening, but we’ve never done it ourselves until this year. With that being said, my in-laws helped us get the garden structure built and have been there to give us advice many times! I also frequently call my dad to ask what he would do in any given situation.
Some quick background before I get into the 10 things: we have 4 garden “structures”- a big garden box where we transferred veggies that I started from seeds in March, a smaller garden box with only tomatoes that we bought from Lowe’s as small plants, an even smaller ground box of 4 strawberry plants that we bought from Lowe’s, and a small deck box with our herb garden (cilantro, basil, and rosemary that were bought as plants and a couple random jalapeño plants that I started from seeds).
The 10 Things I’ve Learned:
- Allow more space than what you think you need in between plants. Our garden box has grown considerably with the mix of rain and hot sunshine, and we’re wishing we hadn’t planted one or two plants to allow more space for the others. We thought we were leaving plenty of room, but most of our veggies want to spread out in the garden box and don’t have much room.
- Broccoli grows HUGE. I’m so pleased with how huge and beautiful our broccoli has gotten, even if it is taking over a big part of our garden. My husband on the other hand is wishing that we would’ve used the space for something else. He said if he would’ve known how big it gets for such a small yield, then he would’ve wanted something else.
- Placement matters more than we thought. Because we planted the broccoli in the front of the garden, they’re growing out of control and blocking some of the other veggies from getting as much sun. The same goes for our tomato garden. I’d encourage anyone who is planting their first garden to pay attention to the sunlight patterns first!
- Bugs/pests will find your garden. We’re still figuring out what to do about this, but it’s obvious that the pests have found our veggies. We frequently shake them off the lettuce and notice that tiny little bites have been taken. We tried to solve this problem with a homemade pesticide (onion, garlic, & cayenne pepper marinade) but had difficulties spraying it because the cayenne seasoning would clog the spout. We’re either going to boil it down and try again, or find an organic pesticide to spread.
- Cucumber plants wrap around everything! This doesn’t seem to be an issue yet, but I could see how it could be a problem for our other veggies. I have already found it wrapped around our bell pepper plant. I need to do some research to find out if this is detrimental to the other plants, and potential solutions for preventing this.
- Don’t harvest lettuce until you’re ready to eat it. We had an excess of lettuce and decided to harvest some so that there would be more room in the garden. However, it immediately wilted and got soggy in the fridge. For best results, harvest and wash right before you make your salad.
- Under the right conditions, you can have an excess. We have so much cilantro and basil that we don’t even know what to do with it. We’ve been incorporating it into several meals, gathering bundles for neighbors, and it just continues to grow like crazy. I think we might only grab one of each (instead of 2) if we knew how it would grow.
- To go along with my last point- plant intentionally. Only plant what you think you will eat (duh). We planted a few things that we typically don’t eat just because I had grown a few plants from seeds so we had it readily available. We won’t let anything go to waste, but we wish we had planted something we love instead.
- I should’ve made a planting schedule based on when I did the starter seeds, when the plants should go in, which individual seeds/plants need to start in March, April, May, etc. I think this was a bit too advanced for us this year but I’m hoping to be more organized next year.
- Gardening is SO rewarding!!! We’ve had our fair share of challenges already, but it’s so much fun and it feels great to eat food that we grew! I think this feeling will only increase as we get our first tomatoes, roast our first crown of broccoli, and feed our toddler strawberries from our own garden!
I’m sure this will be the first blog of several about our gardening experience. I’d love to hear what you’ve learned as a new or experienced gardener! Tips and advice are welcomed in the comments below!
Raising Riley 
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