Planting Our First Vegetable Garden

I’ve always wanted a vegetable garden.

For as long as I can remember, my Grandma has always had the most wonderful little patch in her backyard. Every time we’d visit, we’d fill our bellies with all the raspberries and peas we could pick. She’d cook up the most delicious meals with her potatoes, carrots and beans. Then, she’d send us all home with a little care package of extra tomatoes and lettuce and of course, more raspberries.

It’s never been a really big garden, but it’s always provided more than enough for my Gran and the many people she chooses to share it with.

There’s something so rewarding about growing your own food, isn’t there?

Knowing that you had a hand the creation of the food you feed to your family through every step of its journey, from planting the seeds to nourishing its growth each and every day until harvest.

And, of course the most special part of all, having the opportunity to share it all with our little man. He’s going to be such a great little helper and who knows, maybe it’ll even help him enjoy eating his vegetables a little more!

Each and every Summer I’ve wished for a big old garden of my very own.

Every year May rolls around and life feels as hectic + crazy as always – the thought of building, researching and planting a garden when I know nothing at all about gardening is just far to daunting to take on at this busy time. And so, June turns into July and I find myself regretting not getting it all started once again.

But not this year my friends! This is the year we push through it all – carving out the time to build that garden (despite the unfinished reno still happening inside the house), soaking up as much information as we can about zones + varieties + what to plant where, planting those seeds and then of course, watching them grow. There’s no way I’m going to let another beautiful gardening season pass us by. No regrets this year my friends.

And so, one sunny, Summer-like day in early May, with a sort of spur-of-the-moment decision, we decided to completely clear out the sunniest corner of our yard (giant raised flower bed and all) and build ourselves some lovely cedar garden beds to fill with all of our favourite vegetables (find the tutorial here).

We picked up about a zillion bags of a really good, organic soil formulated especially for growing vegetables and herbs to give our garden the best start possible. After figuring out just where we wanted our raised beds, we lined the bottom with cardboard to block any weeds and grass from growing through, filled each bed with soil and then let it all settle overnight.

Then, the next morning, we laid out all of the seeds and plants we hoped to plant into rows, carefully planning out where everything would grow best. We made sure the peas were near an edge so we could easily build a lattice over them to climb as they grow. We planted the taller plants at the back of each bed so they wouldn’t block the sun from all the smaller plants as they grow taller. I tried my best to follow the directions for each different seed or plant to a T, making sure they will all have enough space to flourish over the Summer.

It didn’t take us long to fill these beautiful garden beds up with all sorts of fruits and vegetables!

Here’s what we ended up planting in our first garden this year…

shelling peas
carrots
rainbow carrots
beets
bunching green onions
walla wall onions

raspberry bushes
blueberry bushes
strawberry plants

various herbs (basil, rosemary, chives, thyme, parsley)

tomatoes
corn
red bell peppers
purple bell peppers
jalapeno peppers
cucumbers
eggplant
broccoli

butternut squash
spaghetti squash
yellow zucchini squash
green zucchini squash
white pumpkins
various varieties of lettuce (head, spinach, swiss chard, kale + romaine)

potatoes (between the beds and the fence)

It turns out our eyes were a bit bigger than our garden beds though – we’re planning to build a few more raised beds for next year, but in the mean time, I tried to squeeze as much as I possibly could into these babies (though I have a feeling I may regret that down the road as things start to grow #Ivegotalottolearn).

It’s been just a few weeks since we finished planting everything. We’ve been very diligent with our watering and luckily there’s been absolutely no weeds to pull yet.

If you follow along with our adventures on Instagram, you may have seen Carson’s excitement at seeing our first seeds pop up through the soil…

It’s going to be an exciting Summer my friends and I can’t wait to see what this first season of gardening has in store for us!

Wishing you SUCH a lovely day friends!

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