Spring is always such an inspiring time of the year for me. The bright sunshine and longer days never fails to evoke in me a feeling of rejuvenation and excitement for what is time to come in the next months. So last Spring we started a garden on the deck.
One of my daughter’s favorite books of all time has got to be “The Gardener” By Sarah Stewart, Illustrated by David Small. The story takes place during the Great Depression and centers around a young girl with a passion for gardening. Her parents’ strained financial situation forces her to go live with her uncle in New York City until they achieve some stability. In the busy and sterile, concrete jungle of New York city, she finds a way to bring gardening to her uncle’s apartment building. He shares her love of gardening to her uncle and the customers to his bakery. The story is presented as a series of letters written home from our protagonist, over the course of a year. It is a beautiful and heartwarming story and the illustrations are stunning.
Feeling inspired, my kids wanted to start a garden on the deck of our house. So in March, we began researching, planting seeds, flowers, trees and started our own little garden. Everyday brought new discoveries for the children. There was always something that was sprouting, new colors to see, new scents to take in and something tasty to try. All of this continued into the fall!
sweet potatoblueberriesVietnamese Mai Flower
Overall, it was a memorable and fun experience for them. Happy Spring everyone. Go outside and plant something.
At the start of the lockdown in Virginia from the COVID 19 pandemic, we decided to grow a garden to get productive and hopefully have some vegetables to eat and share with our neighbors. I think this project was mostly started by our 2 year old son, who was insistent upon tilling the ground. At this point in time, we had no idea what the food produce situation was going to look like throughout the upcoming months. There were a lot of unknowns throughout the whole world and certainly still today. We didn’t want to ruminate….we wanted to get moving.
The first step was to remove all of last years tomato vines and to till the earth. We have a compost bin that we have been faithfully using to replenish the nutrients to the soil. It also helped that the previous owners, apparently had heaping loads of manure dumped into the garden.
By the first week of April we were already planting the first of the seeds. Strawberry, kale, etc. We also reseeded the lawn for spring time is probably the best season for our grass. The brutal Virginia summers pretty much just scorch the earth by July.
April 21, 2020
We spent the day reseeding the front lawn, there are stubborn sections of the front lawn that gets sun damaged every year and allows for the crab grass and bermuda grass to take root. Our plants are developing nicely indoors, it will soon be time to transplant them to the garden.
May 16, 2020
The garden has been coming along nicely. I do believe that this in large part due to a wonderful “normal” spring in Virginia. We’ve been hanging on to cooler weather and we’ve been loving it. It has still been in the 60s in mid May! We transplanted several of the seed bags to see what would happen. We put up some netting around the strawberries but it didn’t seem to do the trick. I think next year we will have to get a metal cage if we plan strawberries
May 23, 2020
We harvested our first carrots from the garden. Once again, the weather still remains pleasant. Our lawn is surviving and so far the temps are still just getting to the upper 70s. Today was a rare 82 F but it still felt very pleasant.
We have been picking from our rosemary and cilantro, some have already bolted. Bolting by definition is when the plant begins forming flowering stems in order to reproduce. Cilantro grows best in cool climates and moist areas. When it gets too hot, the plant anticipates that it will get too hot and dry and if therefore begins flowering and producing leafy stems that are no longer desirable as they lose their taste. It is a survival mechanism for the plant to reproduce as much as possible before it dies, but from a gardening standpoint, this is something that you want to avoid if possible. Plan to grow cilantro in early spring or fall when it is cooler.
May 30, 2020
June 6, 2020
We harvest our first beets along with another round of carrots. We’ve been working hard to diligently weed and water the garden. We still have yet to fix our irrigation system from the two cracked hoses. the hardest part is finding the right parts. Up until now, the weather has been excellent. We are starting to see some hot days. The lawn is beginning to show signs of yellowing.
June 9, 2020
Several of our carrots have fully developed and were eagerly picked by visiting cousins.
June 10, 2020
Spring showers cool off a hot June day. temps today in the high 80s. We got about 30 min of solid spring showers. the state of the lawn is as such, yellowing can be seen throughout. it’s trying to hang on. The maple tree in front is actually growing pretty fast. I think by next year it will be able to provide some pretty decent shade. sometimes I wonder if there are any treatments that can help the grass survive the brutal heat. This season has still been fantastic. Much cooler than averages in the past. This next week we are even expecting several consecutive days in the highs of 70s. awesome.
June 17 , 2020
We are getting one week of rain! We’ve got jalapenos coming in and green peppers and tomatoes.
June 27, 2020
July 3-5
July 10, 2020
July 15, 2020
The garden has been yielding a lot of veggies lately. It has been a lot of work to keep weeding them and watering them in this scorching heat. It has been in the mid 90s all week. Our son has been loving the garden and eating all veggies. The delayed gratification is something he is wrapping his head around. He also has a lot of pride in his garden. In a world of immediate gratitude and digital screens, a garden is the perfect way to fight all that.
August 1, 2020
This has been a brutally hot summer. Fortunately we are through July.
August 4, 2020
Summer showers have left our yard pretty flooded! It’s hot and the mosquito situation is bad.
September 19, 2020
September 27, 2020
October 4, 2020
Temperatures are consistently nice and cool. We do some lawn repair to try to grow some new grass.
October 20, 2020
With temperatures in the 60s, it is just glorious outside. the garden is still yielding eggplants, bell peppers, tomatoes, jalapenos, and kale. We did some light maintenance and trimming to keep the tomato plants at bay. We are heading to the end of the season.
By November we officially declared it the end of the garden season. Although even in the first week of December, I saw some green peppers and strawberries trying to grow. It was certainly alot of work and maintenance, but taking care of this garden has been a lot of fun, especially for our 3 year old boy. I can clearly see his new appreciation of plants and how food is grown, and how it eventually gets to the dinner table. Growing a garden is also a great way to get your child into eating vegetables. Even if the garden does not yield much, you’ll build great memories and hopefully learn something. We sure did. Stay safe and healthy out there.
As we enter the heart of autum, I reflect on the weird garden we picked from this past season. We didn’t intentionally grow a garden this year, but it grew anyway. In the middle of summer, the tomato vines were growing out of control from our initial planting 2 years ago. This prompted me to look up which vegetables were actual annual vs perennial (survives for longer than 2 years).
raspberries, blueberries and other berry bushes
asparagus
rhubarb
kale
garlic
radicchio
horseradish
globe artichokes
lovage
watercress
Minh and I were forced to put up the foundation to keep them from overtaking our lawn. I’ve never seen more grape tomatoes! Minh thoroughly enjoyed the task of weeding and tending to the tomatoes. He’s an industrious little fellow. Another perennial plant in our garden is the raspberry bush in the corner. The raspberry bush did quite well this year and it yielded more berries than the year before. Minh was particularly excited about that. We are well into autumn now and the fruits are all picked.
Upon further reading, it looks like with proper care, the raspberry bush should continue to deliver more berries year after year. One thing, we haven’t been doing is pruning. The branches (also called canes) that bear fruit, only live for two summers. In the first year, the new cane is green. It eventually is enveloped in a brown bark and lies dormant in winter. When it warms again, it becomes a “floricane” which yields berries in early to mid summer and dies. I guess I’m going to have to start pruning the dead canes.
In the spot where we leave our rotting pumpkins, it looked like an extensive vine groundwork was laid however, but we didn’t see any pumpkins, I suspect that the buds were eaten by the local squirrels. Alas, next year we shall be ready for a real harvest….
WAY NORTH 