Gardening is one of my joys! I have been gardening most of my adult life. I enjoy nature, being close to God’s earth, and seeing little seeds come to life and grow into a beautiful flower or delicious fruit or vegetable. I guess this should be only a natural instinct. After all, God did place the first humans in a garden. (See Genesis 2:7-9) This past spring I built three raised bed gardens. The interior dimensions of each bed are 4x12 feet and are made of fancy block about 2 ½ feet tall. There’s no bending over to garden. I filled all the garden beds with top soil and topped off two with two inches of composted horse manure just before planting. I tilled the manure into the top six inches and worked in a handful of worm castings with some organic fertilizer. I use Garden Tone which is available at most Lowes and Home Depot stores.
We have two gardening seasons in North Carolina – spring and fall. My fall garden usually fares better than spring, especially for such cool weather crops such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, kale, spinach, lettuce, and collards. On August 20th I set out little starter plants of broccoli, cabbage, collards and kale. In three weeks the cabbage were starting to form heads, the collard leaves were the size of dinner plates, and the kale was ready to start harvesting. I also sowed some radish, spinach, beet, kohlrabi, and lettuce seed. We are already eating radishes! The other seedlings are showing amazing growth.
My third bed, which contains this year’s tomatoes, peppers, and herbs are still bearing. They will continue to do so until first frost which usually arrives toward the end of October. The basil plant is the size of a small bush. There’s nothing like eating a salad with fresh basil from your own garden. You can start container gardening with the smallest of areas. With a little preparation, you’ll be eating your own fresh vegetables this spring. Happy gardening!
