Story time: An Inexperienced Gardener Tries Growing Her Own Food, Part I

Something I have wanted for a long time as an adult is my own garden. Didn’t have to be a bug garden, just enough to give me the “Little House of the Prairie” feels I need. Since moving into our *tiny home* we have the opportunity to start that garden. I recognize not everyone has the option of growing their own food, but hopefully you’ll enjoy my journey anyway.

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I am very interested in having a low-waste lifestyle. I also love saving money. A garden seems like a good way to work on those two things. I have had to invest a little money up front. I was lucky to be given some gardening supplies by my in-laws, as those things are not always cheap. All the seeds and starts we have so far though, I/we have purchased.

 

The goal with my garden is that I can grow and then can, or preserve, some of our fruits and vegetable for next winter. Hopefully, we can save some money by growing food ourselves. I’ll let you know how that goes.

I’m a big fan of the idea of growing my own food as a way to eat good food and lessen the impact buying food at a grocery store has on the environment. The fresh produce you see there is grown out of season, which has damaging effects, is grown with chemicals, has to be transported to your grocery store and requires packaging. Now you can’t get away with growing food without chemicals completely, but you can use those that are less harmful to plants and animals.

We went to the nearest farm store – side note! They had the baby chickens out! I’d love to have chickens someday. Anyway, we hit up the seed section and here’s what we got:

• Beans

  

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• Peas
• Beets
• Lettuce
• Walla Walla sweet onions
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Mini pumpkins (these are a long shot, but it’s my garden so I can grow what I want
• Butternut squash – I love this seasonal vegetable
• Flowers: two types of sunflowers, hollyhock, lupin, forget-me-nots, marigold & lavender

We have been starting the seeds in empty egg cartons (reuse and reduce!) which are excellent because once you put them into the ground they turn into compost. It is a bit too early here still to plant anything, but I am excited to see some little sprouts soon!

All together, the packets of seeds cost about $35, which is what I expected. Not every seed will produce something, but enough will that I should be able to harvest that money back.

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We also plan on getting some herbs to plant in pots so they don’t run amok in the yard, and we are super lucky to have raspberry bushes already growing already on the property line we can pick.

Seriously, I have almost NO experience growing food. I’m excited to learn and chronicle it here. Maybe it will inspire someone else out there to try it! If and when I can harvest anything, it will officially be labeled the Victory Garden, as an homage to the gardens grown on the homefront during WWI & II.