A Gardening Newbie

Part of being an all around miscell-anne-ous type of gal means continually trying new things.  As of this weekend,  I have embarked on a new journey: vegetable gardening. 

This does not come easy for me.  It's something I have been reading up on for a couple of years.  I'm lucky to have a crazy supportive husband who rides along with me on these tangents.  We have been working on our yard since we moved in, with most of the work in the backyard being done in the last year or so.

Here's what our backyard looked like when we first moved in: 

Last year, we hired a landscape company to come in, take out all the rock and all the railroad ties, and put in a sprinkler system. After that, we went about placing sod and adding plants to the yard. Here's the after: 

I am so proud of how far we've come! We've transformed the backyard into a place to play and relax, and I couldn't be happier with how it's turned out. Of course, a special shout out has to be given to my husband, father-in-law, and mother-in-law. They are all-around talented and this project could not have been done without them.

On the agenda for this year: Project Sutton Garden. C has been working hard to get a garden in place for me (If you can't already tell, I am a spoiled, lucky wife!). It started with removing the old rock and layers of weed barrier (which, obviously weren't doing their job!).

The next task was to till the ground to loosen it up. We mixed in bags of peat moss to really break up the clay.  Then, it was on to smoothing it out in preparation for the boxes that my husband built. 

C chose the boxes to fit our space, so from the front, they are 4 X 4, 4 X 5.5, and 4 X 7 and are made out of cedar.

Next, we filled the boxes with garden soil we picked up from a bulk landscape supply place in town. It was HOT that day, so we set up the canopy so we weren't baking in the sun.

I have not researched gardening to the extent that I maybe should have, but I decided to jump right in. Since this is my first go, I'm taking it one step at a time. Whatever happens, happens! I mixed in some organic compost to the boxes just to give the soil some extra nutrients. 

I'd heard from a friend that one can make a self-watering system by putting holes in pop bottles and burying them in the ground, so that was the next task. I'm not sure if I did it correctly, but again, this is my test year, so we'll see how it goes. Here I am, drilling holes in the bottles. I started out trying to poke them through, and then I whined to my husband in a dramatic voice, "there has to be a better way!" and he produced for me his fancy drill. Yay! Problem solved--and no more whining! 

I buried the pop bottles up to the top. The idea is that I can fill the bottles and water will leak out of them into the surrounding soil to keep it moist. I think I probably could have done four in the 4 X 4 box (I did three), but I was quickly running out of pop bottles and we'd already emptied 10 bottles of dollar store orange soda to make these. Ain't nobody got time to make five more! :)

C and I went to Lowe's to pick up plants. I'd tried some seed starters earlier in the year, but...well...let's just say that that didn't work out so well. When I do it next year, I'll plant in bigger containers. The k-cups idea was cool, but there is definitely not enough room for roots to develop so the poor honeys were stunted from the beginning. ANYWHO...we picked up plants from Lowes and I got them all in the ground, along with some marigolds to hopefully steer the insects away.

Yahoo!! It was hard work, but the garden is up filled up. I left the next morning for a few days, and while I was gone, C and his dad did an AMAZING job building a new section of the fence for the front yard and a cute little picket fence to keep little Barnum and sweet E out of the garden area. 

It has been five days since planting, and I'm not sold on the pop bottles. They needed to be filled up pretty often, so it either means the sun is sucking the moisture out quickly (possible) or I drilled too many holes in the bottles (highly probable!). And yeah, I googled "why are my plants wilting" today. So what? I'm learning and that's all that matters! 

What tips do you have for me? How do I keep these plants alive?!? I planted tomatoes, lettuce, peas, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, potatoes, and corn. Help a sister out and give me some tips!