How Does Your Garden Grow?

Ours grows in storage containers.

My parents gave us a great idea to start our first garden using storage containers. It has truly been therapeutic for us as a family during a time when we are experiencing a wide array of emotions. Continued racial injustice… Pandemic… Planting some good seeds could not have come at a better time. Here’s how we started our garden:

Supplies:

• Storage containers (we used 35 – 50 gallon)
• Drill
• Tarp (this will keep grass from growing into your containers)
• Deer net and metal stakes (4) – You only need these two items if you don’t have a fenced-in yard
• Seeds and/or transplants of choice
• Plenty of raised container mix or dirt from a nursery/landscaping center (you may need to add fertilizer if purchasing dirt in bulk via the landscaping center)

Instructions:

1. We started by laying down our plastic tarp and putting stakes on all four corners.

2. Next we drilled holes into our containers to allow for water drainage in the soil.

3. Once you determine how you’d like to lay out your containers, go ahead and add your dirt.

4. Plant away! Be sure to read the back of the seed pack so you know how deep and how far apart you need to make your plants.

5. Once you’ve gotten all of your containers filled, planted, and laid out, close your space with deer net. Be sure to make one side accessible for opening up to access your plants as needed.

That’s it! Water daily (early AM or late PM) and fertilize as needed. A few additional tips:

-Start small. My mom told me to not go bananas with this project too quickly – she knows me well! Once I got into this, I really got into it (we’ve now started a second garden plot). Starting small gives you time to research, test, and see what’s working and what’s not.

-Make sure you research to know when to plant various crops in your area. Also learn what the term “bolting” means. When plants bolt, that means the heat makes them rapidly flower and move to seed, leaving you with little to no harvest. Summers in NC are hot, so my desire to plant cilantro and lettuce right now is truly an experiment since they are cooler season crops. By researching what lettuces are slow bolting (Nevada Crisp is one we planted), you’ll find that you may be able to plant certain varieties of vegetables that typically can’t stand up to the heat of summer. Here is a nifty resource for seasonal planting by location: https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-calendar

-Read about companion planting. It’s a great way to maximize container space and you’ll find that some pairings make your veggies thrive when planted together. Example – carrots, a member of the cilantro family, have a natural pesticide quality to them. Plant them with lettuce and other good companions to help keep the bugs away. Plenty of herbs also keep bugs away and taller growing plants can provide shade to those with more tender leaves that stay close to the ground (like lettuce). Here’s a good website to learn about companion planting: https://www.almanac.com/content/companion-planting-chart-vegetables.

-Get creative with your containers! Small, short storage containers have been great for experimenting with lettuce. Apparently carrots do pretty well in 5 gallon paint buckets, so we’re giving it a try.

-Make sure you periodically check underneath your containers to ensure your beds are being properly drained. You may find that you need to raise some of your containers up using pieces of wood, bricks, or even large sticks to allow for better drainage.

-Also make sure that you conduct research on which seeds are better to start as seedlings inside your house (or transplants from your local nursery/garden center) versus sowing directly into your garden beds. For example we started our peppers by sowing the seeds directly into the garden bed. Thankfully they are finally starting to look like pepper plants but they definitely got a late start considering it took them longer to germinate outside during our final cool days of spring.

Have fun with this! It’s truly a joy to grow your own food and gardening is a great project for the whole family. Enjoy a few pics from our adventure below and check out a video tour on Instagram @a_little_me_thyme. Love and blessings to you ❤️.