Our smallest little garden

The tiny green sprouts are poking out.

It all started early April. A friend sent me a photo of her raised garden beds. She was starting a backyard garden, maybe I can too? Her sunny plot is in California. Mine could not be so ambitious. Nonetheless, my dreamy aspirations grew larger watching the Biggest Little Farm.

Thankfully, the Halton Environment Network organized a helpful webinar on Starting your own Garden. This was the practical advice a first-time gardener like me needed to get going.

Here’s the basic process I followed:

Step 1: Find a sunny spot

It’s the west side of our house. We have a very small patch of land in front of our back gate that gets a fair amount of sun. It’s no California sunshine but it will do. Otherwise the garden will be in containers on the side of the house. I gathered all the random containers we had around the house and garage – recycling bins, rubbermaid containers, planters, cardboard boxes (we’ll see if these hold out).

Step 2: Select seeds

I sat down with my family and we listed the vegetables we like to eat. We do love our vegetables, so the list was long. I had to narrow down our fanciful selection. Leafy greens seemed a good place to start…squash was out. I ordered seeds and potting soil from our local garden store and cell packs from a local church plant sale. This all happened around Earth Day April 22.

Step 3: Sprouting indoors

I was itching to get started, but it was cold outside. So I began indoors. Potatoes sprouting on a window sill (another suggestion from the webinar) and some seeds in small containers (basil, parsley, cucumber).

Step 4: Planting the garden

Planting was in two stages because of the weather. I started with planting kale, lettuce and carrot seeds in containers end of April. Once the potatoes were sprouted, I planted those in the ground (after my family dug a nice big trench, thank you!)

The other vegetables were planted three weeks later after the risk of frost passed. I planted the beans and some cherry tomatoes in the ground with the potatoes. The containers hold the rest – cherry tomatoes, zucchini and red lettuce (from the cell packs) and more basil and parsley seeds here and there. The photos below are from May 17 after this second stage of planting.

Step 5: Labelling

I was inspired by the lovely painted rocks around my neighbourhood. While mine are not as artistic, they add some pops of colour until the plants fully emerge.

This all happened over a four week period. The cost outlay was about $100 for all the all seeds, plants and soil.

As the sprouts grow so does my anticipation. Grilled zucchini on the BBQ. Panzanella salad (if my homemade bread stays around long enough to get stale). I have some lofty expectations for the Genovese basil…pesto naturally!

I can taste it already.

One who plants a garden plants happiness.

Chinese proverb