My wonderful friend Charlotte helped me plant a garden! She transplanted some sorrel, chives, and kale from her own garden (which is huge and amazing), and gave me a few other seeds. Last week we went shopping and bought all the supplies, dug out the old plants and turned them under, then laid out the new soil components (peat moss and compost manure) and planted the new plants! It took us about 7 hours to do all of this one day.
The sad-looking plants in the middle are the ones that were transplanted from her garden – the roots were exposed to the air for several hours, and they clearly didn’t like that. Charlotte tells me this is normal, and they will probably bounce back over the next couple weeks.
In addition to the kale, sorrel, and chives from Charlotte’s garden, I planted sage, rosemary, basil, parsley, spinach, arugula, tomatoes, and brussel sprouts. I have three different types of rosemary, because the nursery had six different kinds and I couldn’t decide. Rosemary is my favorite herb – I could smell it all day and be happy. 🙂 I chose six different kinds of tomatoes, too – I’m interested to see what the differences are!
Costs so far:
- Watering can: $5.28
- Big & little shovels and cultivator: ~$20? (Bought a month ago – I forget)
- 5 strong tomato cages: $19.85
- 4x 40 lb composted manure: $7.08
- 50 lb peat moss: $9.97
- Various herbs, tomato plants, seeds, and sales tax: $20.77
- Total: About $83
A lot of the costs are one-time costs, assuming this goes fairly well and I plant a garden here next year. The only thing I’d need to buy again are the seeds and plants themselves, so in future years it will be about a quarter of the cost.
I’m really hoping they grow well! This is the first garden I’ve ever planted and run myself. The last time I had any experience with gardening I was in either elementary or middle school, when my mom planted a garden with me and my sister for a couple years. I’ve had mixed reactions with house plants – I’ve killed a few and had a few others be fine for quite a long while. I’m looking forward to having access to tomatoes, herbs, and leafy greens that don’t go bad quickly in my kitchen. If this works well this year and seems worth the work, I might branch out to more daring things in the future, but this seemed like a good place to start. 🙂 Yay fresh produce! *crosses fingers* ~Kell
You're welcome! I was happy to help you get started.