23 July, 2014 Charlena Edge 0 Comment

I planted my first little garden in 2011. It was triangle shaped and the longest side was about 3 feet. I purchased 11 plants from a local farm including 4 cabbages, a tomato plant, a green pepper plant, and some jalapeños. I thought I was tricking the local animal population by planting the row of jalapeños in front of everything else. One day when watering, I thought to myself “I’m going to harvest the cabbage tomorrow”. Unfortunately, the deer also knew the cabbages were ready and ate them that very night!

2011 was also the year we experienced not only a hurricane which is rare, but does happen, but also an earthquake! The last earthquake in the Washington,DC/Suburban Maryland area prior to 2011 occurred in 1828! The rains and flooding from the hurricane were so bad that local schools which usually open the last week of August were delayed a week.

My daughter was convinced the earthquake occurred because I disturbed the ground and the hurricane happened because I wished for rain. Talk about “woe is me”. Anyway…to top it all off, I am terrified of bugs, so after my first attempt, I talked about gardening but didn’t try again.

This year, I decided to give gardening another try. As I learn more about herbs, my dream is to have an extensive garden of rare and medicinal herbs. So, I decided to start with the trusty tomato, green beans, watermelon, and cucumbers. A good friend gave me some established Greek oregano and strawberry plants.

I got my beds prepped and everything planted three weeks later than the average and experienced gardener so everything is way behind. Of the 12 or so tomato plants I started from seed, two made it. I had five green bean plants that some animal (probably deer) devoured as soon as the leaves were big enough. All my green pepper seedlings died, so I put seed directly into the ground. They are about six inches tall now but I doubt there is time for them to grow big enough to produce anything.

I am trying the square foot method of gardening with the grid. I have several spaces within the grid that are empty because the seeds I planted didn’t take. The broccoli and cabbage grew tiny seedlings then died, so I now I have tiny parsley leaves peeking through in those sections.

I am happy to report that I am slowly getting over my fear of insects. I still don’t want them on me or anything. I fell into one of the gardening beds trying to escape a spider – but all in all, I’m doing pretty good. Good enough at least, to see this season to the end and to start planning for an even better gardening experience next year.

Here are a few pictures. These were taken a couple of weeks after I spotted my first little tomato. When I saw it, I screamed and started jumping up and down. If it turns red and I actually get to eat it, it will all be worth it. I just have to pick it before the deer.

  • Greek Oregano

  • Green Bean plant attempting to battle its way back from a deer attack

  • Green Pepper

  • My Tomato!

  • Strawberry plant…Gorgeous!

  • Tiny watermelon emerging

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Charlena Edge

Charlena Edge

Hi, welcome to my humble abode! I’m middle-aged but still learning and discovering. I have a Master’s degree in Therapeutic Herbalism. In between my disjointed, seemingly unrelated posts, I hope to share some of what I’ve learned about plants and about life. Grab a cup of coffee and stay a while. I’m happy to have you.