Before starting your journey to a luscious vegetable garden be sure to research which plants are "in season". Learn from my mistakes. For example, I planted tomato seeds in the beginning of June not realizing the prime season for tomato's is during cooler months. Tomato's require ALOT of water, thankfully it hasn't been horribly hot since it rains nearly every day between 2:00pm-6:00pm. Thank the lord for those Florida summer showers am I right?
To ensure your green thumb experience goes as smoothly as possible here's a list of materials you'll need and mediocre instructions:
Materials & Instructions:
1. Garden Box: Home depot has a plethora of garden box kits, which are all overpriced. This is what held me back from starting my garden project for two months. When in doubt ALWAYS check Amazon! I found this over-sized garden box for $68.04. It was super quick to assemble, and by that I mean it was super quick for Tony to assemble since I was absolutely no help.
2. Weed Barrier: Lay down the weed barrier, place the garden box over it and cut the excess around the edges. Apparently this is an important step since it prevents weeds from growing under and into your garden box/soil. Be sure to get the little steaks that help keep it from flopping all around, they're usually sold next to the rolls are landscaping fabric.
3. Soil: Did y'all know there are about 30 different kinds of soil at Home Depot?! All of them serve different purposes; Soil for flowers in the ground, soil for potted plants, soil for edible plants, soil for burying bodies, SO MANY CHOICES. Being the free spirit that I am, I grabbed 3 bags of whatever soil had the word "garden" on it. Once again, thank goodness for Mr. Attention To Detail, Tony helped me understand we needed to get the right soil if I wanted my garden to actually grow. In reality, he got annoyed that I was rushing and picking up random things, he made me put it all back and actually look up everything I needed. We started out with four bags. I had to go back and get four more bags an hour later.
4. Seeds/plants: I chose to buy seeds instead of plants since the seed packets were only $0.50. I also knew it would be much more rewarding if I started my garden from seeds rather than young plants. On the back of mostly all seed packets it says when they are in season, how much sun they need, how long they take to grow, and sowing instructions. Don't be impulsive like I was by poking random holes in the soil and dumping 3-4 seeds in each. We got tomatos, carrots, red and yellow bell peppers, brussel sprouts, green beans, asparagus, and PUMPKINS.
HERE are some progression pics of our garden!! The side of our shed above the garden is the perfect home for the moss 'T & C' from our wedding. All we need now are the little brace things to hold up stocks of the green beans and tomatos so they wont look like the need viagra.
I might have overdone it with the pumpkins....