After I bought my first house, the thing I was looking forward to most was not painting the walls or buying furniture. It was actually starting a garden. For years, I had imagined that having a garden of my own would be fun. I could plant anything I desired. When it was time to cook dinner, I could simply step outside and into the garden for any vegetables or herbs that I needed. Thus, as soon as my furniture was moved in, I bought some gardening supplies and got to work digging the earth.
Because my backyard was very small, I selected about half of the yard to set aside as the garden. Using a hoe and a shovel, I bore into the grass and moved the dirt around so that it was soft and supple. From there, I watered the dirt over night so that it would be full of nutrients and moisture.
I went to my local gardening store and spent hours wandering the isles so that I could make the perfect selections. I found watermelon, squash, tomatoes and a few herbs that I didn’t yet know how to use, but would learn. However, when I returned home and read the labels on the packages, I learned that each plant needs to have a set number of inches from bordering plants in order to grow well.
Thus, I set aside a spot in my yard next to my fence for the watermelon. I figured that I could remember where the melon was so that I would not step on it is it was separated from the other plants. I then planted the other vegetables and herbs about 9 inches apart in my garden.
When my mother came over, she was impressed that I even started a garden. She did, however, say that one thing: that I would need to have something for the tomatoes to grow on because they grow upward. She suggested that next year I move the position of the water melon and the tomatoes so that the tomatoes could grow upward along the fence.
About halfway through the summer, the garden started to grow out of control. With all of the sun and water that I was giving it, I had more tomatoes that I knew what to do with. My watermelons never came in, but that’s alright seeing as me and all of the neighbors felt compelled to eat only tomatoes (tomato everything) for about 4 weeks straight.
Next summer, I am only going to plant one of each variety so that I don’t have to worry about over-doing it with things like the tomatoes. It was truly unbelievable how many tomatoes just one plant can yield.
While I didn’t use the herbs as much as I thought I would, I still really like the idea of having fresh herbs at a moments notice. Maybe once I start doing more in terms of cooking, I will probably be better with the herb selection.