Hi everyone!!
So in the past few days I've been whipping my camera out at any and every opportunity I got in the hopes that I can compile enough photos for a "My Past Month in Pictures" post, or have enough photos to create an entirely unique project of my own. And yesterday, after a few days of pestering, my mother forced me to weed our tremendously overgrown vegetable garden. But like the amateur photographer I am, I grabbed a couple snaps and decided to use them in a post to share my positive and negative experiences about growing my own vegetable garden.
Honestly, I'm not able to see what all the big fuss is about when it comes to gardening. A lot of people have said to me that it's therapeutic and relaxing, but quite frankly, gardening is one of the most annoying hobbies on the planet. It's pretty darn far from relaxing; you have to watch out for creepy bugs landing on you (or worse, in your hair), you get dirty and sweaty from all of the hard work, and you have to smell that weird smell that belongs exclusively to weeds that look like they're from Jurassic Park.
But then again, I'm really weird, so I actually like gardening. The bugs are a hard limit for me, but I don't mind the dirt or the sweat, mostly because I just love to be outdoors. Weeding really annoys me, and I avoid doing it at all costs, but I overall I really do enjoy gardening.
What I like most about gardening is knowing that fact that you and you alone were able to nurture something, watch it grow, and have your hard work paid off for all at the same time. The above tomato and cucumber came directly from my garden yesterday, and I know this may sound kind of cheesy, but I was actually proud to know that I was able to harvest something after growing the plants for so long. The best part of vegetable gardening is the harvest, no doubt about it.
The above pictures are side views of my garden. Overall, the thing isn't that very big; maybe 12 steps long and 5 steps wide. We actually constructed the plastic barriers long ago, probably five years, in the hopes of planting a big garden one day. It had really never happened until this year, when I pushed mom to our town's local plant store and bought a bunch of herbs, tomato, cucumber, celery, and pepper plants.
In all honesty, gardening is very self-explanatory. The only real difficulty for me was remembering to water the garden consistently, and get rid of the weeds before they dominated the entire garden (which almost happened a good three times). A couple of tomato plants fell over due to the weight of the tomatoes (yum), but for the most part, the garden itself remained intact throughout the summer despite the fact that I truly was never home to water them. Currently, my family is enjoying what little vegetables are emerging.
Next year, my mother and I are considering growing the plants from seeds. It would be much cheaper than buying the plants like themselves (like we did this year), and it would give us a chance to finally break open our little greenhouse that's been stuffed in the corner of our garage for a good seven years, just collecting dust. We might be even build a new greenhouse and sell the old one! Next year, we're planning on planting all different kinds of vegetables and herbs, like pumpkins, squash, lavender, kale, rosemary, dill, and so much more. I can't wait to use what we've grown this year in recipes. I personally think the best things in life are handmade- in this case, home grown. I guess I actually do have a green thumb! (Funny story, when people used to say they had a "green thumb" growing up, I literally thought they meant their thumb was green and was going to fall off due to some disease they had. I was a weird kid haha.)
Until next time,
Megs
