Working full time makes it very difficult to garden much less do anything else. Leaving early, coming home late, making dinner, and kids’ activities put everything else in my life on hold. Sometimes it feels as if my whole life just revolves around going to work to pay the bills. I live for those 48 hours at the end of the week where I can do whatever I want and do it whenever I want. The plants look greener, meals taste better, and the coffee tastes rich. I live for weekends. 

2019 was my year of plants. Having never really owned house plants or a garden, I never really viewed myself as the gal with the green thumb. But somehow at the end of 2019, I managed to finish with 9 houseplants that are actually still alive with only 2 casualties (RIP to my aloe and silver lace fern). I’m not even counting my 4×6 garden bed and my variegated lemon tree… but my casualty rate is much higher out there.

2019 wasn’t successful in terms of harvest. I started in May from transplants (error number one). A few jalapenos here, some green onion there. Definitely not enough for a side dish even for my tiny human. That being said, I feel like I learned a lot of valuable information that I’m trying to take to heart and implement it in 2020. I started a ton of vegetables 12/14/19. Two types of kale, spinach, lettuce, carrots, Brussel sprouts, and radishes to name a few. Looking at my garden now I only have one brussel sprout plant and all my greens. The radishes and carrots produced beautiful luscious green tops but no roots. I’m not sure how that happened but I believe I sowed too late in our season again. 

This past weekend was a beautiful one. The weather was perfect. Addison and I spent many hours outside in the garden. She watered the baby greens while I put together a compost bin and then we sat on a few cinder blocks and sowed some seed starts. She kept telling me how much she wants her own garden. I gave her some pots and asked her to be responsible for the flowers this year. She picked out some beautiful marigolds that I think are going to be stunning when they bloom. 

She also helped me sow our vegetables. It gave me such joy to see how excited she was when she recognized the delicata squash. We only have eaten it once but everyone loved it so much and its beautiful skin makes it memorable. She commented matter-of-factly, “that one’s going to be REAL good.” She was so beautiful sitting outside with her pink rain boots, wispy curls, and dirty fingernails. So concentrated on placing the seeds in the right area and gasping aloud when she’d get a big seed to plant. Even if not a single thing in my garden bed would grow, I’m grateful for the beautiful moments that I am able to spend with her. Seeing her pinch off greens just to snack on truly is one of the greatest joys I have been given so far this year.

So even though long days make gardening difficult, this year I’m working to really prioritize this little bit of heaven. Prioritize and bask in my time in the garden, as if it were the weekend. If it means I have to get up early, I get up early. If it requires watering with a flashlight, that’s what I’ll do. 

The organic gardening mix I used wasn’t my favorite for starting seeds but I didn’t have anything else so I just bit the bullet. It has a lot of mulch in it so I don’t know if it’s ideal for seed starting. I started my seeds last season in special seed starting mix so hopefully, this won’t be setting myself up for failure in the long run. I also watered the seeds and all of my outdoor vegetables with some fish fertilizer and plan to use it once a week to help promote the growth of the seeds.

Seeds started 03/08/20:
-Pickling Cucumber x2
-Yard Long Cucumber x2
-Purple Beauty Pepper x2
-Jalapeno Pepper x2
-Straight Neck Squash x1
-Zucchini x1
-Scallop White x1
-Scallop Yellow x1
-Delicata x1
-Jack Be Little Pumpkin x1
-Perkins Okra x1
-Red Okra x1
-Black Beauty Eggplant x1
-Casper Eggplant x1
-Black Beauty Tomato x2
-Blue Berry Tomato x2
-Kellogs Breakfast Tomato x1

I got a square foot gardening book for Christmas and am going to try to mimic it this Spring. I know my garden bed has the potential to provide food for my family. I just have to keep working to see what works best for that space.