It hasn't been showing in my posts, but my biggest love isn't internet marketing nor cryptocurrency - it's vegetable gardening.
I've been planning to write some gardening posts, but since it's mid-winter here in Belgium, there's not a lot to tell, except for a couple of failed experiments to grow an indoor garden.
Now spring is getting closer, I can almost hear the garden calling me. I can hardly wait to lose myself again in another gardening adventure.
A couple of days ago, I bumped into a 'garden planning contest' post by @halcyondaze. Apparently I needed a #gardencontest like this to actually start writing posts about gardening again. :-)
Let me first tell you how it all started
A Big City-Girl's Dream
I grew up in the big city, where houses don't have a garden. When I was 20 years old, I got interested in herbal medicin and started to grow my own herbs on the small balcony I had. Over the years, life got in the way and I started spending my time on other things.
A little over 2 years ago, I moved away from the big city and ended up in a house with both a back- and a frontyard. The very first thing that popped up in my head was that I would finally get a chance to have my very own, real vegetable garden.
In 2015, I built myself a square foot bed and put some seeds in the ground. I didn't know a single thing about gardening, so Google became my best friend. I learned quite a couple of things that first year. Especially how it shouldn't be done - lol
The year after, I decided I wanted to grow some tomatoes. Since tomatoes don't like rain, we built another bed with a rooftop. The bed gave shelter to the tomatoes, but also to the cucumbers and sweet peppers.
How It Got Completely Out Of Hand
Last season, some friends got me a plastic tunnel hoop greenhouse for my birthday (which is on March 21st) and from that point forward it got completely out of hand. Instead of growing plants according to the space I had, I started building new raised beds for all the plants I wanted to grow. I ended up with a vegetable garden that was more than 10 times bigger than I originally planned.
One of my many creations last year
I simply kept running into interesting vegetables to grow, so I kept building more beds to plant them, taking over half of the backyard.
With Google still being my best friend, I spent all my time in the garden, trying to keep everything under control the 'organic way', without using chemicals. You can't imagine how many liters of garlic spray I made, or how many bottles of peppermint and neem oil I used.
Unusual Veggies
On top of all this, I discovered there was a farm near my house that was specialized in unknown, forgotten and exotic vegetables and fruits. I got curious and started to expand my collection of 'normal' veggies and fruits by plants I had never even heard about. Sechuan Button, Crosne, Kiwano, Chayote, litchi tomato, skirret, yacon, cucamelons, Tomatillos, pepino, cucumber lemon apple... they all ended up in my garden. I managed to grow most of them successfully. It was so exciting to try new things and to discover new flavors...
I think you can say I found my gardening 'niche': growing the not-so-ordinary veggies and fruits
Spring Is Coming... Be Prepared
When my cheap hoop tunnel greenhouse got blown away during a storm, I decided I wanted a ‘real’ one, even though they are really expensive. I was just about to buy one, when a friend told me he knew someone who wanted to get rid of his professional hoop tunnel greenhouse that was 8 meters long. If I wanted it, I could get it for free. If I wanted it????? Of course I did! Having such a large greenhouse offers so much more possibilities, more than I could have ever dreamed of.
I spent all winter looking for more interesting greens I could grow, especially focusing on the out-of-the-ordinary ones. And I found them, I found loads of them. As a result, I currently have enough seeds to turn 2 football fields into a veggie patch.
I think I have 15 different kinds of tomatoes and 10 different kinds of sweet peppers. But, more importantly, I also got my hands on a good deal of uncommon seeds.
If you live in other, tropical parts of the world, fruits like Cherimoya, Pawpaw, Black Zapote, Persimmon, Pitahaya, carambola, custard apple, tamarillo tomato, kiwiberry and kaki fruit might not seem to be very special to you, but in a West-European country like Belgium they truely are. A couple of months ago I had never heard of them - no one here has.
So I’m going to give those a go, some of the seeds are in the propagator already and I can’t wait for them to sprout.
I’ll also be regrowing some of last year’s newbies. The Chayote didn’t make it last year, so I will give it another go. I saved the tubers of both the Yacon (so delicious - its roots taste like apples) and the Cucamelon plants, and I’ll be replanting them soon. I also adored the taste of the Pepino fruits and the lemon apple cucumber, so they will be back too.
The very unknown, but incredibly crispy Chinese artichokes (AKA Crosne) are so invasive they will regrow themselves, whether I like it or not. That reminded me I still need to harvest dozens of them before spring if I don’t want to end up with thousands of those cute little Michelin Man-looking tubers next winter.
Making The Same Mistake Again
While I’m a re-reading the text above, I realize that I am about to make the same mistake as last year: I’m going to overdo it.
I thought I learned my lesson last season, but apparently I have not. Growing so many plants you don’t know in one season, is asking for trouble. Not only is it going to take truckloads of time researching how to take care of all of them, I also have to find out how I can combine them with my regular veggies considering both companion planting ánd crop rotation.
Planning & Organising
To be honest, I really don’t like all the paperwork that comes with a well-organised vegetable garden.
Last season, I promised myself I would use the winter months to create a garden plan, a sowing and planting calendar and plant profile cheat sheets. So far, I haven’t done any of it, and I don’t think I will, although I know it might bring some order in the chaos.
But when it comes to my garden, I simply like to go with the flow and follow my gut feeling. I have the tendency to overthink everything in my life. By overthinking you kill a lot of the fun and you leave no room for being spontaneous.
When it comes to that, my garden is the odd man out. I just take it as it comes, and deal with stuff when necessary. My garden is my stress-free, spontaneous zone - the only one I have - and I don’t want to ruin that by planning everything ahead. You may plan as much as you want, but in the end, life makes sure nothing ends up like you had planned it, so why bother in the first place?
I did make a basic plan about last year's garden, because I need to remember if I want to rotate my crops correctly. But as you can see, it's really, really basic.
My Worst Nightmare Is About To Get Real
I’ve been searching for seeds all winter long and I’m so excited about all the unknown veggies and fruits I am ready to discover.
I’ve been pushing myself for weeks to wait just a little bit longer to start sowing...
I’m craving to feel the satisfaction watching a seed turn into a seedling, and watching the seedling grow out to a full-grown plant. The feeling of excitement when you spot the first flower and the sense of achievement when the flower turns into a delicious piece of fruit ...
...in my garden I can experience a unique and uncomplicated form of happiness.
Unfortunately, I have to start accepting the fact that the chance of being able to return to my own little happy-zone soon is getting smaller every minute. I’ve been having severe back problems and although I have done everything I could to avoid it, I’ve reached the point where surgery has become inevitable. I'll probably be spending my springtime lurking on Instagram and Facebook to see other people do the thing I love most...
Sigh... I guess there will be another springtime next year...
I'll be writing more gardening posts soon, so stay tuned and feel free to follow @mike314-0005, and/or upvote or re-steem this post :-)
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Image Sources:
all pictures are my own, except for the 'white dragon fruit' picture, which was taken from Pixabay.com