Garden Killin’ and Dewberry Pickin’

I guess the real title of this post should be, “How to Kill a Plant in 10 Days” or “What Not to Do if You Want to Keep Your Plants Alive.” Ha. If you have been following along on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, you would know that this year I am trying to grow some sort of edible food to try to help the grocery budget although I notoriously have a black thumb. Long story short, in the month or so since I planted some veggie plants in our little container garden, many of them have come close to death! So I’m writing this in the hopes that I might help someone else that is a beginner gardener, including tips on what not to do if you want to keep your garden alive. It is definitely a learning experience and I guarantee I have no idea what I’m doing. You’ve gotta start somewhere though, right?!

This year, I decided I was just going to try starting a small vegetable garden in containers because well like I said, I don’t know what I’m doing and I would rather start small so I don’t break the bank by killing loads of $$$ worth of plants, haha. I figured the kids were old enough to help remind me and also to help me water the plants everyday so they would have a better chance at surviving. So the kids and I made a trip to Home Depot and chose some vegetables that we wanted to plant. We chose some that are commonly on the Dirty Dozen’s list so we could hopefully harvest our own organic veggies and thus spend less money at the grocery store buying them or worrying if they are covered in pesticides. (To learn more about the Dirty Dozen, click HERE.)

I decided to start with seedlings of tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, and red bell pepper, as well as experiment with a few bulbs of strawberries. I didn’t want to start my own vegetable plants with seeds since I knew I would have to put extra work into hoping they would grow (haha), and making sure they were hardened properly in our Texas weather (Yes, I did in fact learn what hardening meant after Googling beginner gardening blogs earlier this year). Since then, I have also learning you can plant seeds directly in soil outside once the chance of it freezing again is past. So I probably could have planted seeds directly in the ground but at least now I know for next year!

So I guess you can say it was a little more expensive to start with the 4 inch seedlings instead of seeds but I wanted to give us the best chance of success knowing my track record of killing plants, not to mention it was probably too late to start seeds (but I honestly have no idea since I don’t know what I’m doing.)

We spent the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, transplanting our veggies and strawberries into their new containers with some cheap Kellogg’s brand organic potting soil. We also planted some flower seeds because those were cheap and why not experiment to see if they would grow or not. For flowers, I chose Marigolds (to keep bugs away from tomatoes and cucumbers), Zinnias (because they were pretty), and Nasturtiums (because they had some benefit but I don’t remember it now. LOL). We won’t mention the fact that I planted the strawberry bulbs wrong and replanted them correctly the next day after reading the instructions on the package (insert face palm here, haha.)

I chose to plant them in containers since I didn’t want to have to dig up and till a place for a garden. I wasn’t quite ready to get that involved in gardening just yet, ha!

And so began our gardening experiment. The kids have been very helpful and helped me water the plants every day as long as it is not raining. It may have gotten to the point where they were kind of being drowned but at least they were getting watered, right? P.S. The Dollar Tree pots did not have holes in the bottom so make sure you drill holes in them so your plants don’t in fact drown.

Fast forward a few weeks and my plants were still growing. Yay! However, some of them started turning yellow-ish and both the zucchini and cucumbers were producing flowers but the flowers never turned into mini vegetables. Some of the strawberries were growing little leaves but then started dying for some reason?! And now I only have one strawberry plant left?! Meanwhile, the flowers and spaghetti squash seeds in my front flower garden that I randomly threw in there were growing like crazy. Something was not right and not conducive for the container plants to grow properly. I figured it probably had something to do with the soil and lack of plant food or fertilizer since I just started with plain organic soil without adding anything.

I tried adding a little compost on the top of the soil in the containers to see if that would help and didn’t see much change. Then someone recommended fertilizer or epsom salts. I didn’t have either of those so I added a little more compost and some magnesium flakes I had (which are similar to epsom salts.) I even got the kids to add some of the earthworms they had found digging in the dirt around the house. Yes, I was desperate to save my plants, haha. I still didn’t see any change with that either. I had two tiny tomatoes and a small bell pepper but my other plants looked yellow and like they were dying so I gave in and decided to asked for some advice on my social media accounts.

Some of my friends & followers said they needed more fertilizer. Some said they might be too fertilized. Others said maybe the containers were too small, maybe they were being watered too much. And another said maybe the zucchini and cucumber weren’t being pollinated properly, thus the reason why the flowers were just falling off. Another recommended Poor Man’s Coffee (which I had never heard of) and/or crushed egg shells for calcium. Someone else even recommended talking to them. Maybe they grow better if they feel loved? It’s worth a shot! These were all super helpful suggestions and at least now I had some ideas of where to start to help get my plants back into the land of the living.

So just last week, I decided to get some organic plant food and mixed that into the potted plants along with more compost. I also moved the plants to another location and near a tree that always has a lot of bees in its flowers to see if that would help with pollination. This new location was also in a place that didn’t get quite as much sun since I thought maybe they were getting too much sun. I obviously wanted to give them the best chance of survival. One of my poor tomatoes suffered decapitation by two-year-old though so maybe it isn’t the safest place, but at least I’m trying to do something to help my plants!

At the same time that the garden I was trying to grow was dying, other plants around the yard were growing actual edible and completely organic fruit without me having to make any effort! We have spent just about every day the last week or so picking ripe dewberries, Indian strawberries, and even mulberries from a tree I didn’t even know existed. The kids are also learning the difference between what is ripe and what is not and which berries on other trees around the yard are poisonous and not to be eaten. So maybe the lesson here is if I don’t plant it, it will grow just fine. LOL! Not to mention all the beautiful flowers around our yard that were here when we moved and have been blooming every spring.

It’s been a little over a week now since I replanted and moved my little garden, and guess what?!?! They are actually turning green again and looking much better, minus the tomato decapitation of course. So note to self: add fertilizer and compost to the soil in the beginning when you plant seedlings in containers!

Obviously, the danger isn’t over yet since I haven’t exactly harvested anything edible yet but it hasn’t been long since spring began so now they just need a little bit of love, probably more fertilizer at regular intervals, and plenty of sunshine and time to grow. And of course here’s to hoping no more vegetables experience death by toddler.

I still do have a backup plan if they start looking sad again and don’t grow much bigger. I planned on raking up all the rubber mulch that was recently put down around our roses in the front flower garden and planting them in the ground there so they would have a little more room than in the containers. But then gasoline got poured (I shall not say by whom) all over weeds there so I’m not sure if that is a safe option anymore. I have another spot that can be my backup plan in case the soil in the flower bed still seems contaminated by the gasoline and I can’t plant them there. It will just take a little more work. But whatever helps to have a somewhat successful first year actually trying to garden, right?! It’s definitely a learning experience and I already know what I can do different next year. Note to self: Add fertilizer and compost to the potting soil when you plant your seedlings!

I hope my learning experience helps someone else that’s wants to start their own garden! Basically, I would recommend Googling plants that don’t die easily, using huge pots with drainage, adding enough organic fertilizer and/or compost with the potting soil (and continue adding it on a regular basis), plant flowers nearby that will attract bees for proper pollination, and try to keep your toddlers away so they don’t prematurely pick any “pretty flowers” or vegetables.

I definitely think it’s a great educational experience not only for me but also for the kids. Hopefully as they get older, they will be able to have successful gardens with or without me “helping”. If you have any helpful hints, tips, or tricks for beginner gardening, please let me know! I’m definitely willing to learn more as I go!