The Successes and Failures of My First Garden

I consider myself a beginner in many of the homemaking skills, this is something I share often on Instagram. It is one of the reasons I love homemaking. There are so many hobbies to learn! To be a beginner is a beautiful part of the learning process.

Try something new,

Learn some lessons,

and try it again.

Social media is filled with experts showing off their incredible skills. It can be intimidating. It makes you feel like you need to be the best at something right away and if you aren’t, you need to either fake it or hide it. Don’t hide it! I find seeing beginner mistakes refreshing!

Last year I went through this experience with sourdough. This year, it is gardening.

Gardening

I love the idea of gardening. It is such a dreamy hobby to me! This past spring (2023) I decided I was ready for the commitment. I should say, I am not one of those green thumb people, I believe there is a term “black thumb” for gardeners like me. I forget to water things. They die. People say, “try succulents, they are so easy because you are supposed to neglect them.” I find a way to kill them too. I think indoor plants require a special skill that I don’t currently have, so I decided this past spring I’d try outdoor gardening.

I built my first vegetable garden bed and my first flower garden (for Mary)! To my surprise, it was MUCH easier than taking care of indoor plants.

It went great!! At the start I had a few problems with bunnies and birds eating my seeds but I was able to pivot with some of the plants in order to get better results.

I discovered bunnies don’t like Zinnias. And they LOVE sunflowers and morning glory seedlings. Birds found these to be a favorite snack as well. The sunflowers never made it, despite my replanting the seeds multiple times and covering the seedlings. If you are a beginner gardener, I recommend Zinnias!!

My vegetable garden also did well and produced some lovely vegetables, zucchini’s, cucumbers, and tomatoes! The radishes, carrots were not a success. And the lettuce, well, would you call it a success if it ended up being as tall as you??

This leads me to the one biggest lesson I learned as a beginner gardener.

Pruning.

I was afraid to prune my plants because I loved seeing their incredible growth, I couldn’t bring myself to cut my plants!!

And for that, I paid the price. My vegetable bed could be described as overgrown chaos and their production of vegetables slowed considerably. I know, its one of the most basic truths about gardening (and also the spiritual life ha!).

John 15:1-2 says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”

Now I know from experience and I will be more ready for that step in the next growing season. This year, I am happy that something came out of the ground, that I yielded a harvest of some kind!

Overall I’d say it was a success!

There is something incredibly spiritually enriching about gardening. I loved taking daily watering walks with my plants. I found it naturally inclined me to pray while I did so. It was a great way for me to get fresh air by myself or for my kids to get fresh air with me!

I am eager to share my next garden with you!