Resourceful Mommy, How Does Your Garden Grow?

I have always wanted a vegetable garden. This spring when I wrote about the Oasis garden, I was excited to get one for my family and to finally get started growing my own veggies! Around the same time I was able to offer my readers (and myself) a discount on Backyard Leisure cedar playsets, so we finally caved in and purchased what turned out to be a gorgeous playset that my kids absolutely love. Now my kids can have fun in our yard, and quite frankly, the matching wood of the garden and playset really make the back of my house look so much better.

Now back to my garden….

We started broccoli and cantaloupe in little seed starter kits that we picked up at Home Depot, and I was so excited by how quickly and well they grew. The only issue was my daughter’s accidental combination of seeds, so we did have broccocantopoli growing for awhile!

My apologies for the awful picture! As you can see, starting the plants inside the house worked out very well. Sadly, only the cantaloupe survived the transition to the outside. I’ve been told that broccoli can be very difficult to grow, so I don’t feel too bad, but I’m excited to try again next year.

We also planted petite carrots, cucumbers, peas, and green beans to complement our surviving cantaloupe plants. Despite the fact that I grew up around farming, I am horrible at recognizing plants. I decided to clip the seed packets – placed inside a reclosable bag to protect from water first – in the grip of wooden clothespins and then push the other end into the dirt. This way it is easy to not only remember what is planted where, but you also have a handy reference for plant care.

Because we have a fairly serious deer problem, I also used some 2″ X 2″ wooden stakes in the front corners of the garden to increase the protected area of the Oasis garden with deer netting. It was very easy to use a heavy duty stapler to attach the fencing, and I’m pretty sure that the deer will decide to move on to greener pastures rather than risk getting their hooves caught in my net. To also discourage birds from landing on my plants and having a snack, I curved the netting over, leaving plenty of room for bees and other insects to pollinate my plants.

Hopefully shortly we will have beautiful veggies to show you….and enjoy!