Hi gardening friends! I know it’s been a hot minute (or many lately because the sun has been hot af), 😎 but I’d like to dive back into more posts on our small space garden situation and pieces of the meals we’re gaining from it. Even though it’s not something I’ve been discussing much, it’s still something that’s been happening behind the scenes. I want to share more of that with you now, because it’s an important part of this journey to better health that I’m on, and since you’re on that journey with me, it’s only fair that I share how it’s been going.
Rediscovering the Joy of Small Space Gardening
I don’t remember not having a garden. Growing up, my parents or grandparents always had some kind of garden, whether it be teeny or ginormous, it was a present part of my childhood. During my teenage and young adult years, I kind of forgot about it to be honest. It went by the wayside when friends were prioritized and parties took precedence. But then, when I fell in love with my partner, I fell in love with gardening all over again, too.
As soon as I dug my fingers into the soil, it was like a flashback to the past. I missed the feel, the smell, the texture of the dirt. The little joys that I got each time a seedling finally popped through the soil. 🌱 I missed harvesting that homegrown goodness because not only was it like a little bit of magic, it was also super budget-friendly especially when our relationship was new. 👫
I think that’s a big part of what people forget about gardening (except during COVID of course when it became much more of a better option). That you don’t have to go anywhere to get groceries. You don’t have to spend a fortune on beautiful fruits and vegetables. They can be grown with love and care and a little bit of your own magic right in your own yard. 🪄 (I’m not specifying backyard here like most people’s probably are, because I FULLY intend to someday have a garden wrapped around my home).
Low-Maintenance Gardening, High-Reward Results
Why? Because (1), I loathe keeping up with flowerbeds. I hate dealing with mulch, decorative rocks, and finicky flowers that just die all over again every season. I get it, some peeps love the new flower shopping each year and planting them all over again. Basically all of the women in my family do that, in fact. But your girl has got goals yo, and she ain’t got time for all of that repetitiveness. 🤨
And (2), I’m the kind of person that wants to put it in the ground once, and I darn well better be getting something back out of it. Sure, some things take more time to grow than others and can be ooo’d and ahh’d over and appreciated for a longer set of time. BUT. I would much prefer my landscaping to be incredible vegetables, fruit trees and nut trees that I can harvest for the season, or even years to come after planting just once. (What about the ones that die each year? They’re cool as a cucumber, since they’ve most likely produced enough for me to stock up for the year ahead). 🥒🤷♀️
So, long story short, I love small space gardening. And even though by fall I resent growing one in the first place, I walk into my cupboard in the winter and take in all the amazing things that I get to shop in my home for. No spending, no wasting time in the supermarket, just grab and go to put into a recipe.
I’m hopeful that it hasn’t been too long to bring back the gardening posts, and that you’ll play catch-up with me along the way. We’ll even touch a little on the meals I’ve been able to make with it, but we’ll keep those deets for a different post. 😉
Making the Most of Our Manageable Garden Space
Even though there hasn’t been posts, we’ve still managed to maintain a tiny garden this year. Maybe it’s not considered tiny to some people, but to us, that used to have a giant one with rows and rows of produce, this teeny section inside our dogs fence is MUCH more manageable. (And these affordable planters have been WAY easier to work inside).
We considered taller planters that allowed us to save our backs from bending over to harvest. But even though that is a bother, I’m very happy we decided to go with the ones on the ground. Not only are they much bigger, but they also were way easier to fill up, (we did a layer of dirt, then a layer of mushroom compost, then 2 more layers of dirt). AND they would have been SO TALL if we didn’t choose the ground ones. I’m talking about the height of the tomatoes! 🙈🍅
Mushroom compost is an organic, slow-release fertilizer made from the leftover growing medium used to cultivate mushrooms.
My harvest this morning was two full kitchen bowls of green beans, 1 heirloom tomato (finally), a medium sized kitchen bowl of cherry tomatoes (which I find are by far the easiest to work with), as well as a handful of cucumbers and peppers. Check it out below.👇
The Convenience of Small Space Gardening Near Home
Not only are the planters easier to harvest from, but they have also been way more convenient compared to when we had a large garden. We’d have to walk out the door, through the gate, down the steps, across the bridge, and up the hill to get to it. And sure, you may be thinking that’s not far at all, (and it really wasn’t). But to drag a ton of hose that far for watering, after a long day of work, and then tons of large baskets back down full of way more produce that we needed, it was more of a chore than enjoyment.
Now, we just need to step out the back door while we let Dixie & Loki out. They’re easy to water, easy to harvest, and something I stopped putting off because I didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with after work. They also look much healthier, and we haven’t had to tend to them hardly at all, which I think part of that is because we don’t have to deal with pests bothering them so much since they’re *inside* of our dog fence. (That was part of the plan!)
Lastly, we made sure to put them smack up against the fence, so that the tomatoes and cucumbers could be placed in the back, where they could grow freely up the fence on either side, (again, eliminating one more step of needing to tie them up or put a stake near them).
I will *always* do planters from here on out, with the exception of root veggies in the big garden, like where our bajillion rows of onions currently live. (The hubs may or may not have gotten a larger quantity than anticipated). 😅
Growth, Gratitude, and Getting Over the Garden Guilt
Guess what folks, and like the garden, I’ve been working on my own kind of growth. If you’ve been following for a bit, you’ll know that growth can come in many forms and this was just a small part of it. We’ve had some form of a garden now for 12 years, and this is the first time I can actually step back and breathe from it. It’s been incredibly refreshing.
However, it took trial and error for over a decade to see what worked best for us, not just for what we wanted, but for what we could realistically handle with our lifestyle. I don’t think there’s any easy fix for this, unless you start out knowing everything, which unfortunately is something you just can’t do. (Except for now with the help of ChatGPT, I plan on absorbing new knowledge like beast, because, I would much rather learn new things than kill time vegging on the sofa).
Why Staying True To Natural Intentions Can Allow Room For Personal Growth
Time is fickle bia, and what we do with it can make or break our future selves. So my advice is to use your time wisely, try not to take on more than you can at once, and have gratitude for the way you got there.
If we’d never struggled for years figuring out that we didn’t need to grow every vegetable under the sun, we’d have never considered a planter garden. If we’d never struggled with pests and protection sprays and different fencing each year and long time consuming walks to the garden, we’d never have considered creating a different, closer, more convenient option inside the fence instead of outside of it.
More Sun, Less Sweat: A Garden’s Guide to Life
This consistency has not only allowed us to become more capable of taking on what we’ve grown this year, but it’s also provided us more time to actually process those veggies and create delicious, healthy meals from them as well. (Something that we didn’t get to do as much when we were shoving in bag after bag of unwashed produce on top of each other like a balancing act because there was more than we could actually handle).
A small harvest every few days has been so much more rewarding, just like this whole growth path has been for myself. My mind, body and spirit look forward to those days, knowing that I can spend a good hour soaking up the sun instead of dreading spending a half of the day in the sweaty field of veggies.
I now know that I can do more things, if only I prioritize my time and schedule accordingly. I used to scoff at people who planned things so meticulously, but now I search for specific ways to tailor my day to what fits me best. Once I noticed that doing so allows me to better control a multitude of outcomes, I was able to recognize that it wasn’t about control at all.🤔
I used to feel the need to have everything done in a certain order, but today, I realize that those things just needed shifted into when they made the most sense. It took stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, instead of having tunnel vision for all of my goals and hopes. And one of my hopes is that you can see that growth is part of the journey, and to not shy away from it.
Once you understand that you have the power to change your life, it can catapult you into expanding your mind, (even if you have to reduce the size of your harvest). I try to remember each day that I am grateful for what I have.
And the garden teaches me that year over year…without ever saying a word. 🌱
🌿 Thank You for Growing with Me
Thanks for sticking around through this garden (and personal) journey. Whether you’re here for the veggies, the mindset shifts, or just to see what Dixie & Loki are up to, I’m grateful to have you along for the ride. Here’s to small space gardening, big life lessons, and finding joy in the dirt — one harvest at a time.
