Growing Food for Fun

Last spring I planted my first vegetable garden.  I'd thought about it and talked about it for years but I lived in an apartment.  Then I bought a house.  A house with a big back yard, citrus & avocado trees and tons of space for a garden.  

I researched vegetable gardens and settled on a raised box.  Living near the coast in Florida the soil is sandy and without an irrigation system in my backyard a raised box made the most sense.  

I had wood cut at Home Depot and my boyfriend and I assembled the box.  He brought water from the backyard hose bib through PVC pipes to my garden.   

Then came the fun, anticipation, learning curve and acceptance of what is and isn't possible in Florida's hot humid summer climate.  I'd read about square foot gardening and planted my plants close together.  And I wanted an organic garden so I ignored advice and bought only organic pesticides. My garden grew well in the beginning.  Fresh romaine.  Lots of grape tomatoes. 

Cucumbers

Bright yellow squash blossoms 

Then the squirrels ate the baby green peppers.  The yellow grape tomato plant took over the red tomato plant and the cucumber vine grew into the tomatoes too because it didn't have enough room.  The Florida heat and humidity set in.  The yellow squash leaves got mildew and the bugs appeared.  But I wanted an organic garden so I continued to follow the directions on the organic products to try and control the bugs and disease.  The mildew spread to my cucumber plants and an unidentifiable orange bug infestation began.  Lots of bright orange ant like bugs hatched and grew bigger each day.  I went out of town for work for a week and when I returned the orange bugs had become huge black bugs.  I conceded to mother nature and that weekend my garden went from organic to locally grown.  By that time the plants were too week to produce much more and other then the hot peppers I'd planted to try and keep the squirrels away my first garden was pretty much done. But I had learned. I had learned a lot.  

So now its winter and I'm trying again.  Boyfriend doubled the size of my garden box and I planted greens and broccoli.    

I planted other vegetables but we had a very unusual early freeze and they didn't make it. I also listened to boyfriend's advice to give the plants enough space and I tried for more traditional rows.

I love to see the plants and vegetables growing and the sense of accomplishment I get when I pick and eat what I've grown. I'm growing food for fun and I'm learning a lot along the way.