The Beginning of Gardening
Hello.
It's been so nice to finally begin my own garden. I'm so excited to start growing my own food and learning more about food systems and the health benefits of food. I also love watching all the bugs interact with each other in the ground. Nature is so cool.
Anyway, I want to begin by saying what types of plants I have in my garden.
Surrounding my garden are Bonanza Flame Marigolds. They are so beautiful. I love the dark orangish-brown that's in the middle creating more depth. They also keep away the animals that'd want to eat my garden goodies.
Stepping inside the garden, on the right you will see my tomato plants. I have two different varieties of tomatoes. One of them is The Fourth of July and the other is La Roma III. We love tomatoes in our house so we always have them. I'm so excited to finally have garden fresh tomatoes!
Behind the tomatoes are the cucumbers. Again, I did the two-type rule. The first type is Straight Eight, the other is Homemade Pickles. I used to not like cucumbers but they began to grow on me. Especially pickles, now I can't get enough of them.
Health Benefits of Cucumbers: Being made up of mostly water, they're great for keeping you hydrated. They also contain fiber which will help keep your digestion in check!
Then if you look across from the cucumbers, you'll find my pepper plants. And you guessed it, twos again. I have a Jalapeno Gigante II and a Red Bell Pepper. I love peppers, they add so much flavor to dishes. Plus, I love a good crunch.
In between my peppers are Chives. I grow them in a jar sometimes when I get a bunch from the market, but to grow them in the ground is a whole other level.
If you look behind the chives, there's a tiny Carrot plant. I heard they can be a little difficult to grow, but I thought it might be fun to try it.
Now in the middle, is my herb garden. In there, I have Dill, Cilantro, and Spearmint. My mom is planting sage and basil so I didn't want to have too much of one thing. I cannot resist dill, it is delicious.
Health Benefits of Dill: It is packed with flavonoids, which are known to improve your heart health, reducing your risk of stroke and heart disease.
I got all of my plants from a local nursery. I originally was going to start from seedlings but I just got too busy and didn't have enough time to dedicate to the garden as much as I wanted to. But this will do.
If you have suggestions on what I should make with all these garden goodies, reach out!
The Plans
Of course, I'm doing more than just planting some plants.
One of the plans is already finished, which is putting a cute stone patio next to the garden. I love how natural it looks. It will allow us to have more gatherings with friends and family which is always nice, plus it lets us have a natural space since where I live is very suburban city-like. Plus, the stones were reused for this purpose, which makes it even better. Being sustainable can still be cute!
My next plan is to add biodiversity. What do I mean by that? Well, of course, adding ladybugs, earthworms, and hopefully praying mantis. These little bugs are great for your garden, to keep away not only things you don't want but also to help keep the weeds at bay.
Other plans: Adding bee baths, solar lights, and decorating!
Fun Fact: By adding solar lights to your garden compared to typical electrical lights that you plug in, you'll be saving an average of $50 dollars a year, plus you're being a friend to nature.
I can't believe how fun it's been to start gardening. It's still early so I'm sure things will come up that may be challenging. I try my best to prevent things from happening, but nature does what it wants sometimes.
But so far, I've learned to maybe give yourself more space than you think you need. I was worried about having too big of a garden and being overwhelmed, but since I started I realized plants take up way more space than you think. Even when they're small.
I forgot to mention, since I've been gardening I've been more in tune with what produce is in season or not. Since lemons were in season, I made some lemonade. Nothing better than some fresh squeezed lemonade after being in the garden.
Keep Exploring :)
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