Nourish and Grow: G-dog's vegetable garden

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.

Plato

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Dirt, nourishing and growth has been somewhat of a thing for me lately; ever since I began vegetable gardening. It's been a really great process and, whilst I've seen a lot of growth in the plants themselves, I've seen a great deal of growth and development in myself also. The process has been rewarding and has nourished my soul.

As I've said before I'm not a stranger to gardening, no expert mind, just not a total novice. Vegetable gardening is something I've not done for a long time though and I'm learning as I go. I've had a couple of plants that haven't developed as well as I would have hoped, although all are still alive, and some that have gone really well - I suppose that's how life goes right? Success and failure.

I've been harvesting produce though, and eating it, which has been super-rewarding and the successes and learning-along-the-way have far-outweighed the lack of growth of some of the plants. Overall I'm happy.

One of the things I've realised is that I planted a few of the things a little too close to one another; the lettuce for instance.

It hasn't really impeded growth too much but I think due to the close proximity some of the leaves haven't formed properly and have curled and prematurely died. The lettuce I put in is one that doesn't get plucked from the ground, one simply harvests the leaves one needs and the plant continues to grow, so I've been taking the outer leaves which allows for a little more room for the plants to grow better. It's not been a massive over-crowding issue, although I'll know for next time and stagger the plant-out.

My carrots were also somewhat problematic; it's my fault though. I didn't separate them enough when I took the seedlings from their cultivating trays and as they grew they all twisted together; I planted baby carrots and in truth they tasted fine, they just didn't look quite like one would expect a traditional carrot to look. I'll be planting full-sized ones next time and will get the spacing right of course.

Everything else seems to be well on-track for success. The baby broccoli and celery is looking awesome, I have loads of Aztec tomatoes and likewise with the cucumbers and red onions! It's all pretty great so far and I'm looking forward to some great harvests moving forward.

I've learned a lot with this trial-run and will do a few things differently although I'd have to still call it a success so far. Sure, there's a few things that haven't taken so well but most is looking simply gorgeous and I'm pretty happy, and proud, of the way it's all come along.

In the not too distant future I'll be eating my own eggplants (Aubergine), beans, tomatoes, celery, cauliflowers, onions, cucumbers and capsicums (red peppers) which will all work nicely with the various herbs and salad leaves I'm already harvesting. I'm actually taking some broccoli a little later today and intend to blanch it then dry and freeze it for later use. I'll have more than I can eat at one time if I don't freeze some.

I'll not be able to feed myself completely off this harvest or any subsequent harvests in reality. I'll have to augment what I grow with purchased produce and that's ok. I mean the feeling of satisfaction is there all the same and the thrill of eating my own fresh-produce, the things I've nurtured and toiled to bring into existence, will still be there even when combined with a few purchased items.

I've already begun growing my seedlings for my next plant-out too, this time from seeds, and I've got a lot of propagating trays already starting to sprout so I think I'll be in for a pretty epic second harvest in a few months to come.

So there you have it folks, a little update on how my garden is growing. I'm going to call it a total success from a growing perspective and a leaning perspective. I know what has worked well and what things I need to change a little, have taken some notes and sought some answers to some of the issues that arose. I've got a few ideas about what I want to do next time, the propagating trays are going nicely and I'm eating my own home-grown fresh produce. What's not to like y'all?