It Ain’t All Roses: A Garden Update

It’s been about two weeks since I planted out our spring garden. It’s been so fun to watch everything sprout and grow, but it hasn’t come without problems. Today, I’m providing a garden update and sharing a little bit of what we’re encountering.

Squirrels

I honestly don’t know what to do about this problem.

It started out with digging insane holes for apparently no reason, but it progressed to digging up some of my seedlings…and then leaving them behind.

They’ve also taken to eating tomatoes off my early treat tomato plant. Which might be the greatest offense of all.

I’ve read fake owls and cayenne pepper work, but a friend said she’s tried both methods without much luck. She mentioned that folks in the Amish community put out tin pans to discourage squirrels, so I’ll be on the hunt for those at the thrift in the coming weeks.

Yellow Leaves

I think this might be due to under-watering, which has me a little baffled because I sincerely thought I was watering enough.

Eventually, we plan to run a drip line, but for now, I’m having to hand water. And I am generous with the water. But I guess not enough. I’ll be thankful for the rainy season picking up to supplement my apparently-lackluster watering.

My bigger fear, and one I can’t spend too much time entertaining given all of the hard work my husband undertook to run this line, is that our fresh-from-the-well water, which we know to be very hard, is depositing too many minerals into the beds that are causing this. So it comes down to whether we continue to use hard water or salt-treated water.

Failed Seeds

I have read umpteen times that “sunflowers are so easy to grow.” I’m here to tell you that is not the case in my garden.

Of the bajillion (well, not quite that many) sunflower seeds I planted across two beds, I think I had maybe six that sprouted and survived the squirrels.

This week, I’m ordering zinnia seeds to scatter in those spaces so that I have at least some form of beautiful flowers. Though, I’m admittedly nervous because apparently zinnias are easy to grow, too. My track record could work against me on this one.

I also had cucumbers fail as well. I’ve struggled with cucumbers in the past. I’m going to give them another try before I designate that portion of the bed to something else that will grow for the summer season.

I was theoretically prepared for failures and learning opportunities, but it’s definitely discouraging when you’re learning a lot at once like this. Right now, I’m just hanging my hopes on to the tomatoes on my Everglades and early treat plants and hoping some of the more prolific plants, like squash and zucchini, give me enough of a harvest to sort of ease my first growing season sorrows.

To see all of our garden content and to read more about our first growing season, click HERE.