My first blog post....

[Elvia Padilla-Medel]

So, this is my first blog post! Ever!

A bit of background: I live in South Austin, am married, and the mother of two great kids. I really, really, reallly, want a successful garden! I think it's so important for my kids to grow their own food. They LOVE it, too--I think all kids do; it's just natural to them. I also love how gardening can be this family activity. It feels very unifying, like you're going on an adventure together! I am passionate about health and well-being,and also food! I love old school domesticity....So, I love to cook. I always want to use the best ingredients, and what could be better than your own garden harvest??? I guess I have a lot of reasons to want a great garden. I actually grew up on a small but fairly functional farm in El Paso, but that was ages ago, and, as a teenager, I never really took that much of an interest in the workings of it. My parents didn't really make it fun, either. It was more like work. But, even so, now that I'm older, I find that gardening is a huge interest of mine.

I've tried to do a home garden before, many times, but it's never been what I would call successful. I've always ended up kind of giving up. This year, I feel like I have more know how, or at least I hope I do. Still, many things seem like a mystery!

My garden: I've been working on prepping for my garden bed for what seems like forever. I set up in the sunniest part of my yard: the side of our house that faces the street. It's on a bit of an incline, so I hope we leveled the soil enough.That old grass was hard to get out, and we had to use pitchforks to feel effective! Shovels did not do the trick. We turned the soil ourselves then added turkey compost today.

Tonight we planted--it got dark on us...one of our neighbors was outside laughing at us! I don't think I've ever actually appreciated daylight savings time! I spaced the plants out pretty well, I think, along two rows in each bed.

We planted tomatoes in one bed. One of my other neighbors (whose garden intimidates me--maybe I'll post some pics of it here) was nice enough to give me several varieties of tomatoes: celebrity, roma, pear, cherokee. I also bought some from Natural Gardener: Better Boy and Better Bush. We'll see how those do.

She also gave me some tomatillo--I can make a nice green sauce for enchiladas if they work out, yum!--some kind of melon, and I think egg plant (whatever it is, it went in the ground!). Generous, huh? We bought some peppers, squash, some kind of exotic salad green, and a few new herbs: sweet marjoram, thyme, sage, and of course, cilantro. Trying grow basil from seed. Will also be planting watermelon and cucumber seeds tomorrow!!! I planted all those viney plants together in the same bed. Deciding on where to plant what was kind of hard, but maybe I am overthinking it. So, lots of work today.

I'm really nervous about the garden. Like I said, in the past, I really didn't know what I was doing. I grew stuff, but I never really started with that great a bed. I definitely put more work into the bed than ever before this year. The bed is about 16'X7', so it's not too big...we ended up separating it into 3 equal beds, really, with walk space in between each, each bed being around 5'X2' or so.

Does this sound right? I certainly hope so. We'll mulch well this week, and I hope to put in some drip irrigation lines this weekend or so.

I'll end with this: ANY advice any of you experienced gardeners want to throw my way, feel free!! I'm hoping this great site will be a source of information and support for an insecure new gardener!
Hope all of your gardens are going well!!

[Elvia Padilla-Medel]

Thanks for your encouragement and advice, everybody! This is exactly what I've always needed, now that I think about it--a supportive community of fellow gardeners! Whoo hoo!

[rubyann d. gaglio]

can't wait to see it. this is exciting. good luck.

[Ty Mellon]

Awesome post Elvia! Thanks so much for being involved! Cannot wait to work further with you and watch your efforts flourish!

[Camilo Garcia]

This was a great read and sounds like the beginning of a great garden. One thing, though, if you mulch deeply and it is too early, you can suppress the growth of the plants you want. The safest bet is to mulch after your seedlings are identifiable and you know which plants you will be keeping. A second thing is to not be afraid to thin out your plants as they establish. This all depends of course on how many seeds you planted and how many sprout, so only you will know how many to take out, but especially with vines, follow the recommendations for space. I think it's good to look to other sources as well for more general tips and you will begin to develop your own feel for your garden. I wish you much success and lots of fun learning, I think that's as satisfying as the eating!

[Rachel Butler]

awesome post, Elvia. I, too, planted some tomatillos. They are already blooming and are the real superstars of my garden. I have some crazy green leaf lettuce. I love the size of your garden, divided into smaller sections. Take some pictures. It always helps when I can go back and look at where I started, reminds me how far i have come. :) I planted some cherry tomatoes, since i like to graze in my garden. Good Luck and keep us posted!