A New Approach

    I have always wanted to be able to have a garden. I enjoy planting seeds, watching them grow and seeing them turn into flowers or vegetables. Actually, when I first attended college out of high school my major was biology, hoping to get into forestry. 

    

    This year I decided to give it another try. My grandson always wanted to grow sunflowers and we have had limited success growing them in the past. 

    

    Our first attempt went fairly well until the sunflowers grew just tall enough for the deer to take notice and eat the tops off of all the plants. We had prepared a bed of garden soil along the fence and watered them regularly. Unfortunately they were on the outside of the fence where the deer could get to them.

    

    The next attempt was much the same except this time they were inside the fence. We were able to grow a few flowers which made it to maturity. For some reason only a few grew and they weren't very healthy.

    

    This year we started our seeds in peat starter pots. In addition to the sunflowers we also started beans, peas and an assortment of flowers. They started quite well but again, nature stepped in. The squirrels decided that the seedlings were fun to dig up or chew off at the base. They didn't eat the seedlings. They just destroyed them. We were able to replant some of the ones they pulled out but in the end only a few made it. 

    As for the garden, this time we took a new approach. We constructed a raised bed garden, 8' X 4', in a fairly sunny part of the yard. 

We filled it with raised bed garden soil and constructed a 2 X 2 framed which we covered with netting. We transplanted the seedlings that had survived the squirrel assaults, and planted seeds to fill in the rest. We also planted plants from the store...two tomatoes and cucumbers.

    Another thing we're trying is going vertical. The peas and beans are being 'trained' to climb cords we have hanging from above. We are also attempting to have the cucumbers grow up a trellis. Whenever any cucumbers start to grow we plan on supporting them in nets hanging from the trellis. 

    So far the tomatoes are starting to flower, meaning I may actually get some edible tomatoes soon, and the peas and beans look healthy with some of the peas starting to climb the cords.

    The sunflowers are another story. We had started a second tray of just sunflowers and transplanted the seedlings into the garden. For some reason they didn't want to stand up and grew kind of curly at first. After about two weeks most of the plants managed to straighten up but there are still one or two hold outs. 

    We are about to add a watering system so that the plants will always have enough water. We're going to put it on a timer but hope to build a controller that will measure the moisture in the soil and water the plants accordingly.

    That's where we are the first week of June. We are guardedly optimistic. I don't trust the squirrels. I see them eyeing up the garden as they run around the yard.

My attempt at growing a garden...again!

I have tried to grow a garden many times. I have never had much success. I have tried several approaches, with very little success. Because we live in an area with extremely sandy, acidic soil I have had to try a few different things...

Containers - I used some large pots for growing tomatoes. This has been the most successful attempt, even though the plants end up looking like they are from another planet. Rather than growing big and bushy like everyone else’s, my tomato plants grow tall and thin. The large tomatoes have to be supported or the long, tall stalks bend and break under their weight. The bunches of grape tomatoes suffer the same fate. And regardless of what I do, the plants don’t start producing until well into the summer.

Soil Replacement - I have tried digging out ‘beds’, removing the sandy soil and filling with garden soil. I have had mixed results, none great. Peas and beans did ok but the plants weren’t big and healthy. Sunflowers are hit or miss. The first year I learned not to grow them where the deer can get to them. Then there was the broccoli. Not a single plant came up until late fall, when one lonely plant started growing quite well.

Flower pots - I used lots of flower pots and containers for flowers. I have fair success with this, but again, many of the plants grow tall rather than bushy.

I’m hoping this year will be different. To begin with I am starting many seeds inside in those little peat discs. I’m hoping this head start will help. I’m d9ing a lot of them. Next, I am building a raised bed / box garden. This will be completely new garden soil and organic matter.