My Gardening Experience...

No one in my family is a farmer, gardener, or even really from the country. I have absolutely no experience and have no idea what I'm doing. That said....what I can say is that I tried. I am asked many times why in the world would I try my hand at growing my own veggies. The answer? I really don't know other than the fact that I one day decided that I didn't know how and that I felt I should at least know. So, I went to my local organic gardening place and asked a bunch of questions until I felt confident enough to try.

I got a late start and so I realize that I'm not gonna get high yield or anything (the Texas heat is just too much for a blooming tomato plant to take), but I am proud of myself for making the effort and I've realized exactly how rewarding gardening can be. I can see how gardening can be addicting. Problem is, I don't have much more room in my life for addictions. Between food, blogging, and home and family, I'm all tapped out!

Now for those of you who are experienced gardeners. Don't laugh at me. I have to start somewhere :)

Here is what I began with. My plan was to make a whole in the ground big enough for one plant and then add room a little at a time and add one plant at a time. Digging up grass is HARD WORK and this project was done all by my lonesome. Oh well, it the effort all went towards my calorie burn for the day!


After a few weeks, here's what it looked like. As you can see I lengthened the bed a bit. The tomato cages were free from my local Freecycle and the bricks were leftover from our house building materials. I spent about $20 on compost to add to my existing soil. One day I might get adventurous enough to start my own compost bin.


Here's how things looked last week:


The biggest tomato plant is so large and heavy that I've had to do all kind of weird things to get it to stand upright but it's still hanging in there. Now for the fruit of my labor - it's beginning to show itself! Here are some of my cherry tomatoes (some still green and couple ripe). Me, my boys and my nephews had a blast the other day just popping them all the other red ones off the plant and into our mouths.




My larger plants aren't ripe yet but they are looking good! I can't wait to slice 'em and serve 'em. I've always heard homegrown tomatoes turn out to taste much better then the ones I would normally get...




This is one that the boys picked while we were out the other day. They just got picking happy and picked the wrong plant. So...this one is not gonna make it to the table.


So there you have it folks! I've tried it and had a little success. Maybe next planting season I'll venture into different veggies. I hear bell peppers grow pretty good in the Texas heat...