Five Lessons Learned in our First Growing Season
It’s hard to believe that our spring garden days are numbered. With the sun pretty brutally beating down on us here in central Florida right now, it’s not likely many of our plants will last much longer than another month or so. Having a garden has been just the most fun. Today, I’m breaking down five of the biggest lessons we’ve learned in our first growing season at the cottage.
1. It all starts with great compost.
I’m so glad we trucked in compost at the beginning of this growing season because I truly believe it’s what has made the difference in our garden.
Each of our beds were created with 50% high quality compost. It’s fed all of our plants really well.
My goal for each growing season is to implement something new; in the fall, I would love to introduce worm castings to the beds to continue to enrich the soil. Regardless of whether I’m able to make that happen, we will definitely be bringing in more compost to refresh our beds for fall planting.
2. Water, water, and water some more.
Because we have no kind of automatic irrigation in our garden, I’ve been watering our plants by hand from the beginning. One the one hand, it’s really allowed me to take time to slow down and observe specifically what’s going on in the garden day-to-day.
On the other hand, it’s been really problematic during this especially long dry spell the past month.
We should be well into our rainy season by mid-June, but we aren’t. And while I haven’t skimped on watering, I certainly don’t feel like my plants are as happy when they’re relying on me for water as they are after a good rainfall.
We’ll be installing drip irrigation before next year’s spring planting. For now, I’m finding that even when I think I’ve watered enough, it’s best to water some more.
Protect Tender Young Plants.
SquirrelGate 2023 was an unexpected way to start out my gardening journey.
It taught me an incredibly valuable lesson about just how vulnerable young seedlings can be.
After squirrels decimated my entire sunflower planting and started getting after my banana peppers, eggplant, and young corn stalks, I purchased a package of owl pinwheels to help keep them away. (Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
Since then, I’ve had no issues. It’s amazing that for less than $20 I “saved” my plants. In the future, I plan to do a little more work up front to ensure my seedlings have the best chance at survival.
Bear With Yellow Leaves.
Sometimes, I think young gardeners like me are quick to panic over yellow leaves.
In fact, just a few weeks ago, I was ready to tear out all of my green bean plants because I was convinced they had contracted a green bean blight (spoiler: they hadn’t).
By exhibiting a little patience (and understanding that the first place to look when it comes to yellow leaves is watering practices), I’ve been rewarded with my first round of green beans!
Going into the fall, I plan to treat yellow leaves with caution, but if the plant is still producing, I definitely won’t be as quick to jump to conclusions as I’ve been in this growing season.
Involve the entire family at every step.
It has been such a joy to involve the entire family in the garden. I love having little hands ready to help water. Little gasps of delight as little eyes take in a growing plant or vegetable. And renewed thankfulness for natural phenomena like rain because “rain makes things grow.”
We’re actually on Watermelon Watch right now watching our first watermelon grow bigger by the day. It’s exciting to be looking forward to that first sweet taste.
Our boys are learning about life cycles, good bugs, and just the delight of seeing a project through and having something tangible to show for the effort. It makes me wish we had started this gardening experiment much sooner.
