Green Thumb

 Hey Y’all,

This past May, Aaron and I decided to plant our very own garden. Growing up, my grandparents grew and sold corn, watermelon, turnips, beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumber, okra, peppers, and collards. I remember selling watermelon out of my Pop’s truck bed to help earn some extra spending money, many mornings spent shelling peas, and shucking corn with my Granny. Those are precious memories to me now and there is something about growing, harvesting, and cooking your own food that you have grown that makes you feel so accomplished. We started our own 8’ x 8’ garden because I wanted to carry on a tradition, eat healthier, and have our own organic produce. Aaron helped me pick an area out. He tilled up the land, we placed our boards down, nailed them, and applied a garden fence to keep out critters.

 We planted tomatoes, lettuce, red bell pepper, cilantro, yellow squash, strawberries, and cucumbers. This was our first garden and we learned many things along the way. Our strawberries and iceberg lettuce did not do great, but I have heard that the first year you plant them is the worst for them. I think next summer I will switch to leaf lettuce. We used organic insect spray and hot pepper spray once a week to help deter bugs and deer. Our tomatoes are doing amazing! The taste is incomparable to store bought veggies. The cilantro took off like a weed and we have used it in guacamole and in pasta dishes. I love to sauté yellow squash for a side dish or even make squash casserole, cucumbers are great with hummus dip, Italian dressing, or on there own. Once a week, I weed and till up the ground to help the plants grow. We also planted marigolds on both sides of our tomato plants to boost flavor. I love sunflowers and we planted those along the perimeter of the garden. As far as watering, at first I watered each day. Ohio has had a very wet summer, up until this August, and after talking to some local official Buurma farmers I found that our garden only needed to be watered a few times a week.

 I am so excited that we finally decided to do our own garden together. It is something that I will pass on to our future children and teach them about planting, sowing, and growing our own crops to feed our family. It is a great way to spend time together and when you harvest your crops you feel so proud! It is something that you worked hard to achieve, not to mention the money saved on grocery store runs and the availability of organic, healthy, fresh veggies in your own backyard.

Genesis 1:29-30
Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.

 

 

The University of Georgia has a great website that I referred to that helped me understand the basics of starting your own garden:

http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.cfm?number=B1011

If you have any gardening tips, recommendations, or questions please comment below. Would love to hear your feedback!