Gardening!

I’ve wanted to garden my entire adult life. I’m nearly 40, and it’s finally time to learn a new trick…

We got a Landscaping Plan built out as we were finishing the home build. It’s been immensely helpful as we design our outdoor space (thanks, Landscape Love!), but we choose at the time to just lay sod as moneys were getting pretty tight.

My #1 priority this spring is to get a vegetable garden going – which will be larger than originally planned, but I’m still trying to maintain something small as I learn… A close #2 is to fill in a specific part of our side yard and build a beautiful bee haven (very similar to what was laid out in our plans). If things are going well with those two projects, I may also try to get a few of our trees down…

So now to break down my sub-tasks. 🙂

• Create the vegetable garden plan complete! See rough pics below
  • I’m going to start with the following – but not overdoing any of them: brussels spouts, tomatoes, strawberries, leafy greens, carrots, onions, chives, garlic, broccoli, sweet peppers, asparagus, green beans, rutabagas, hot peppers, parsnips, cauliflower, and (maybe) potatoes
  • I am going to attempt a leafy greens boarder to my planter beds in hopes the bunnies will just be satisfied and stop there. I have a feeling critter management is going to be the biggest learning curve for me as I get started
  • We have a side yard begging for some raspberry bushes and a good friend with way too many raspberry bushes — so that is a likely add-on as well
• Design drip irrigation system + required changes to lawn irrigation system I’m hopefully to talk to the irrigation company in the next few months and get some advise here.
• Build indoor seed started space and start some seeds! I’ve been researching how to do this on YouTube (@CaliKim29 videos have been amazing to learn from). I have a general idea of the grow light set-up that I want to accomplish and plan to start the build tomorrow. I may vlog this process just for my own journal.
• Assemble the planter beds. I plan to spurge a bit here and buy 2 of these 8×2 elevated beds. I’m hopeful they will last a long time

Budgeting: I would really like to get started for $1000, but I know that will be pushing it. The two planter beds mentioned above (yes, I know – a splurge) will be $600, I assume the grow lights and set-up will be another $100-$150. Seeds and dirt are likely to add up as well… However, it does feel good to know that if you get this up and running the right way, your year 2 and 3 costs are nil to nothing… At any rate, my budget is at risk and I haven’t even started. 🙂