So my gardening adventures have begun. Two Sundays ago, my mom and I headed to Lowe’s equipped with a $10 off $50 coupon I received in the mail (would you expect anything less – heehee) and we ended up making some awesome purchases. I have to admit that I feel a little bit like a cheater since I didn’t plant anything right from seeds.. Instead, I bought vegetable plants and herbs that were well under way. I am proud to announce that after two weeks of being a gardener (can I call myself that now or is it too soon?) everything is still alive! My vegetable garden is not complete though. I’m still waiting on my husband to build me the sandbox garden that I want so badly. So, if you all would like to help and leave some comments encouraging my hubby to help out this weekend, I may have more vegetables to report next week. 😉 Once I have my sandbox, depending on the size of it, I plan to plant some peppers, cucumbers, cantaloupe and maybe some other fun veggies like onions and lettuce…
I will say that from a “frugal” standpoint, I went out on a limb when I purchased the Jalepeno plant. It was $10.00. But, it was gorgeous. Looked so healthy and had a ton of flowers on it when I bought it (I thought that was a good sign right??). Well, the jalapenos are growing so nicely. I’m going to have to do some research online to see when it is time to pick them! **Remember that I am a TOTAL non-gardener so I know NOTHING about what I’m doing! Below are some pictures of my adventures thus far. I will say that I feel so accomplished to have everything alive and thriving. Last night I made pasta with tomato pesto sauce and lots of fresh basil from my basil plants. Was so fun to pick fresh basil right in my backyard! 🙂
I would love some comments with any tips or advice you have for me! Would also love some ideas for veggies I should plant once I have my sandbox! I plan on planting veggies that are already under way so let me know if you know of any hearty vegetable plants I should focus on!
Below are some pics of my veggies and herbs thus far. Due to horrible neighborhood watering restrictions we have to resod and also ignore the fact that the grass needs to be mowed. Thank you. 😉 I plan to have the “sandbox garden” (do you all even know what I’m talking about when I call it that?? There is probably some official name that I’m unaware of. :)) inside the perpendicular border that my potted plants have created..
Tomato plant on the Left, Jalepeno Plant on the Right.. The tomato plant is starting to flower.. How long does it take for tomatoes to actually show up once a flower appears?
Closeup of two adorable jalepenos. 🙂 I have to research when I’m supposed to pick them.. There are literally 20 more flowers on the plant.. Will the plant reflower after current flowers turn into jalepenos?
The horizontal pot has two basil plants that are totally thriving on the left and the small plant on the right is parsley.
Greek Oregano on the left, Dill in the center and Mint on the right. 🙂 The dill was looking a little questionable last week but it seems to have rebounded.
That’s it for now.. Will keep you posted on the good bad and the ugly! Thank you to all of your encouraging comments and emails when I originally posted about whether or not I should start gardening. You all majorly inspired me!
P.S. A HUGE thank you to my wonderful mother for her help!
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My name is Liza and I began my money-saving journey in the Spring of 2009 as a way to stretch a limited household income. I had lost my job and my hubby was self-employed. I launched Addicted to Saving in November of 2009 and it has grown by leaps and bounds. Since then, my hubby and I have struggled with the ups and downs of two failed adoptions and are now LOVING being parents to our little man Asher who we brought home from Ethiopia in August of 2013. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to help you save money. My goal is that you will have FUN and become empowered to save more and more money each week..
Yay Liza! Those look great! how fun! Jeff, get on it!! 🙂 You need to be self-sustaining!! LOL!!
I don’t garden. I do read a personal finance blog though and the main author is a gardener and often writes entries regarding finances and gardening that you might find helpful. Here is a link that includes several links to his garden project. http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/category/house-and-home/
My husband got me a sandbox garden at Home Depot in March. He was wonderful and put it right together for me. I have cherry tomatoes, green peppers,carrots, green beans, watermelon and cucumbers. I didn’t start my plants from seed either. My beans and cucumbers taste wonderful. Good luck.
As a supervisor and 7 year employee at The Home Depot. I have to say, Lowe’s is a swear word in my dictionary!!! 🙂 Home Depot does accept ALL competitor coupons!!!! 🙂 We also have a garden club! Sign up and receive tons of gardening tips and great coupons!!! I recently used a coupon that was buy 1 get 1 free on flower bulbs. There are always really good coupons all spring and summer.
Yes, your plants will bloom continuously all season. These are not like trees that only bloom once. Green peppers are also easy to grow. We grew them on the patio last year. Beans are usually easy as well.
wow. that’s so much fun. I also did not start from seed. I end up killing anything that I try to start from seed. :/
We used to have an enormous green house in our backyard, I am a non-gardener as well but will offer this warning:
Keep the Basil away from everything else. Basil grows extrememly well, it seduced me into believing I was an expert grower, haha. It will take over all other pots and plants if you allow it.
We stopped watering and taking care of everything in our green house. A year later we went in to see it and the basil was growing in 15-20 different pots! It was the only thing that survived(/thrived) our neglect. But it does freeze well, so I picked it all and froze it.
Good Luck. Keep us posted with pictures.
I love having fresh basil. I make tomato basil pizza and it is so good with fresh basil!
I am an avid gardener. My garden is a 60′ by 70′ plot. Keep up the good work. You will find you are going to get tons on jalapenos off of that one plant. They continue to flower through the season. I can several pint from one plant. (My dad loves them) You will find your tomatoes plants will be plentiful also. Be sure to ‘help’ it stand up when it gets a little bigger. The weight of the tomatoes can cause it to sag and break. Good luck and have lots of fun.
Looks great so far! I am by NO means an expert, but we have a garden every year. A pretty big one I think. This year we have green beans, red onions, sweet onions, carrots, kaladeiscope carrots, bell peppers, garlic, tomatoes, pink cowpeas, sweet potatoes, corn… I think that’s it? We’re still learning every year. And I’ve canned 14 pints of green beans so far! Yea, you might want to get some tomato cages for your tomato plants.
I’d start from plants too (in fact, I need to go out and buy some)!
Someone mentioned basil growing like crazy — ditto for mint. My mom keeps her mint varities separate from her other garden plants.
I wish you the very best! It seems you’re off to a wonderful start!
Your garden looks wonderful, and don’t feel bad for not starting from seeds! See how you do this year and if you like it, then next year, buy one of the Jiffy mini greenhouses with the peat moss pods to start your seeds, those are super easy and like $5!
I’m a newbie too and started out this year with a tomato plant. It was going great guns, flowering and producing lots of tomoatoes (that were MUCH better than the grocery store variety BTW) BUT then we got leafminers and then today I picked a tomato and it had a big wormhole in it. Sigh. Any suggestions?
My three year daughter said she wanted a garden… so when that happened I told my mom that we are going to garden. It was a great bonding moment to have all three generations working together. We planted tomatoes, yellow peppers, red peppers (both took a long time to grow but they are getting so big), some type of hot peppers (we don’t know what they are but they are good), and a strawberry plant. We got tons of tomatoes so far and plenty of hot peppers. And oh yeah the eggplants are starting to grow too. I hope your garden does just as well and don’t forget to water.
Good luck on your garden. I don’t know where you live but make sure that you plant things that are suitable for your area. I live in lower Alabama. Four of my favorite things to grow are strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes, and watermellon. We give a lot of our produce away to people of our church. My strawberries are almost finished producing (we buy and plant strawberry plants in October for spring harvesting). Our potatoes are coming in now, homegrown potatoes beat store bought potatoes 100 fold. We buy and plant seed pototoes at the end of Feb or first part of March, cut them in quarter sections then plant them and hill them up. We have build a screen house for my tomato plants, we have stink bugs that destroy the tomatoes. 4 tomato plants are more than enough plants for most families, unless you can. They quit producing in the summer when it gets to hot, if you can keep them alive all summer long, you can have delicious tomotoes in the fall. Look up determinate and indeterminate for planting different types of tomato plants and how long they will produce. In my screenhouse I dug holes in the ground then I have planted my tomato plants in 8 gallon pots that I cut the bottom out (they were given to me by friends that had planted bushes and trees). Watermellons and cantaloupes are planted around the middle of March to harvest in the latter part of June through July. If you are limited on space you might want to plant bush varity plants. Hope this helps.
Looks great! Scotts has printable coupons for $5 off EZ Seed grass seed. *wink wink* Wish I had a green thumb and could give you some tips.