First, it all started in the spring with a cheap-o beginning to composting. $12 garbage can from Home Depot, free bungee cord from our car's emergency kit, and leftover scrap wood from our deck project. Enter, the compost bin. Be sure to drill some holes on the sides and on the bottom for drainage. I've found that adding some dirt in addition to your browns and greens (4:1 ratio-ish) has really helped. And adding worm friends from the dirt around the house doesn't hurt either.
Then came the garden. I was so amped to start my first vegetable garden, and it seems to be doing quite well so far. I planted spinach, red pepper, cucumber, two tomato plants, and two yellow squash plants. At the beginning, it looked like this:
The ugly chicken wire fence is to keep out critters and the pit bull dog from across the street, as the garden is in our front side yard.
About a month or so later, our garden began to look like this:
Notice the Jurassic Park-esque size of the squash plants. They are almost double that size currently. It's absolutely ridiculous. And I've since caged up the tomatoes, so we will see how that goes.
And, we are sprouting...check out the little guy!
Last but not least, our first spinach harvest:
I love learning the ins and outs of gardening. I'm doing this completely in a "fly by the seat of my pants/trial and error/this looks good and uh oh this doesn't" sort of way. I'm not very methodical, but I can read the signs of too little watering, which is working in my favor. And our herb pots in the back (cilantro, basil, and mint) are doing pretty well too. Let's hope it continues!
