The Homeschool Villge is sponsoring this awesome garden challenge. Even though I missed out on the first part of the challenge, I am thrilled to join in this month.
I am a gardener. I grew up on a small farm with a large garden and learned my love of gardening on a large scale. I haven't really lived anywhere with the possibility of a large garden before now. In the past, I have gardened in flower beds, alleys, and pots. Now that we have downsized I finally have the space to garden on a large scale! The local community gardens is the home of my present garden.
The last few years have been a crash course in gardening in the wilds of my little town. Squirrels stealing a tomato or two, a rabbit nibbling on my flowers, a bug here or there---that's nothing! Of course, it seemed like something in my past gardening lives! At my current location gophers dig up EVERYWHERE. Ground squirrels run rampant. Birds think they own the place. Possums are out at full force every night. Raccoons trash the place as soon as things get locked up at night! We decided as a family that if we were going to continue to pay to garden, we needed to step up security. So my kids all built these beauties! They have heavy duty mesh screen on the bottoms to keep out gophers. They will be covered in chicken wire or bed netting after they get planted.
We have planted our seeds on our back patio. And have babies popping up every day.
Since we do have room for some pots on our small patio E-R and I decided to do an experiment testing out Miracle Grow Potting Soil and our handmixed organic potting soil. We used the Miracle Grow Organic potting soil in the dark pot; we used our handmixed recipe in the light colored pot. The lettuce seedlings were all approximately the same size when we planted them. They will also be watered the same amount at the same time. We did add different flowers to the different pots--just because. We will be taking pictures each week for the next four weeks to see which soil promotes the most growth.
What's growing in your garden?
Looks great ! Stopping by from HSV!
ReplyDeleteLove your "soil experiment"! I will be interested to see how it turns out!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to hear how your experiment turns out. My daughter and I just had a conversation about Miracle Grow vs. organic fertilizer at Home Depot the other day.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love the boxes! Your kids did a great job.
Jess, the reason we decided to do the experiment was because Miracle Grow was the ONLY brand of potting soil available at our local big box store. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, we will see what happens.
ReplyDeleteThat is going to be a fun experiment to watch! Let us know which one wins :)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing how the gopher protection turns out! We live in the country, so we can simply.. ahem.. take care of them.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it fun to watch those seeds sprout!
ReplyDeleteOO Fun! Can't wait to hear the update.
ReplyDeleteKelly