Gardening Newbie

This year has been full and busy with a new job, traveling, marathoning, and life in general. I don't know where the year has gone but it's almost time for another one to begin.

Something I've been wanting to do for a while now is learn to garden. I don't really like gardening or yard work, but I have been wanting to grow my own food. I'm also kinda lazy, I forget to water, have no idea how to care for plants, and wanted to start off with something really easy to see if I can do it.


I went to a local nursery and after some conversation they convinced me that tomatoes and strawberries were a great start. Both are really easy plants to take care of, and because Texas soil is pretty crappy, they do really well in containers. I had wanted to start off with some container plants so it was a perfect fit. About March I got all the supplies and plants and started to learn.

They were right, and the plants didn't die. I even got a few strawberries too, which apparently doesn't happen much their first year. They were really small, but still sweet. I was happy that my first attempt was going so well.

By the time July hit I noticed my strawberries where outgrowing their container a bit. They were shooting side shoots into their neighboring pots, and even into the tomato plant pots. I friend of mine gave me some old wood pieces and I put together a raised bed. I wanted to give the strawberries more room to grow and spread, and feeling confident, wanted to try planting a few fall crops as well.

The strawberries seem to be thriving, and I still got a few berries in September. they've stopped fruiting now, but they are still spreading like weeds and slowly taking of the bed. My tomatoes have done pretty well, despite the horrible Texas heat, and I've had some yummy cherry tomatoes to snack on.

Once I had the bed, I decided to try lettuce and broccoli as well since they are fall crops. What I didn't anticipate was that Texas would be unseasonable warm all through September. As a result, I only got two lettuces to sprout. And both turned out to be completely inedible because they were unbelievable bitter. Apparently that happens if they grow in hot weather. So far my garlic is still alive. I hope it survives too.

My broccoli has sprouted quite well, but nothing has flowered yet. Because it's been so unseasonable hot, I'm concerned that I won't get any broccoli as a result. Now that the Texas weather is finally starting to cool down, I'm going to give broccoli and lettuce another shot. I also threw in some snap peas last week and fingers crossed they will grow.

Gardening has become fun to me. Trying to get seeds to sprout in my kitchen has definitely been a learning experience. And soil is a pain. It's expensive, and you need a lot of it for a little area. Stupid Texas land. But my hope is that this first year of start up will make the next few years of attempts a bit easier. I'm already in the process of making a few more beds. No idea what I'm going to plant yet, but I'm starting to stock up on soil and seeds now. It sure does take a lot.