This is my garden, and while it may not be much, I’m proud of it. In an effort to document my “gardening journey” I will be documenting the garden each Fall. So, this is my debut! 

Things I learned from gardening: 

1) PESTS: I wasn’t expecting so many pests! aphids! squirrels! grasshoppers! I’ve battled them all! (No, not really.)  

The most insidious were the aphids – YOU CAN’T SEE THEM, so you don’t know why the zucchini or the kale won’t grow. They slowly suck the life out of a plant. 

Luckily, with aphids you can make a quick mix of water and dish soap to spray on effected plants. I’m still trying to get the zucchini and kale to grow, but now I know what’s up.                                                                                                

2) Get witchy with your plants and follow the moon . . . When the moon is waxing, plant seeds that grow up. When the moon is waning, plant root vegetables (radish, carrots). Incase you’re not witchy, the waxing moon is a new moon to full moon. And the waning moon is full moon to new moon. I read this in the Farmer’s Almanac and have noticed an improvement since I’ve started to follow it. 

3) Assess and know the environment you live in. I got messed up because I didn’t realize plants grow at different times in different environments. Sounds pretty obvious, but the first seeds I grew gave general times for planting and harvesting. Towards the end of the summer I realized that planting times are depending on where you live. My environment is completely different from the environment in the Northeast, meaning, I might have a longer or shorter planting time. 

The seasons here in California are long and weird. Temecula, where I live, is a couple hours drive from the desert. If it’s too hot, the plants won’t grow. We have hot summers with heatwaves hitting 100 degrees. My plan for 2022 is to get my seedlings going earlier (February?), because the tomato plants I started in March and April are just now growing tomatoes (it’s October). The tomatoes growth stumped when the heatwaves hit. Next year, I’ll experiment with nurturing the seedlings better and starting them earlier than March. 

4) Really nurture the seedlings before potting them outside. I just wasn’t set-up to nurture the seedlings once they got big. So I potted them outside and let the best one win. Unfortunately, many of them didn’t survive. So, this year, my plan is to have bigger containers to create a greenhouse effect (and protect them from our cats.) 

#gardening #harvest