Hello Friends! I’m here with another Home Update blog post and today I’m sharing all about our garden. It wasn’t until last year that we started a garden at our house. Long story short, my mother-in-law started it as a way to keep her mind off of her cancer diagnosis. She passed away in November of 2020 so Sean and I have decided to plant it again in her memory. The whole area was completely transformed from just a 28′ x 11′ wooden box to a beautiful fenced garden that is surrounded by flowers.
I wanted to share this project because it is one that is special to my husband and I and we both are really enjoying seeing everything that’s coming up.
What we planted
I started a few things from seeds which I’ve never done before. I was just trying it out and almost everything took off. The radish and red onion didn’t make it.
We have 8-9 tomato plants in a few varieties – they are taking over! I knew they would and still did not give them enough room.
4 cauliflower – They’re huge!
1 cucumber plant – Did not remember planting this, haha!
4 Jalapeño plants – We have a few baby ones showing up now. Hoping they get a little bigger.
2 Zucchini plants – We only needed one. It’s the plant that keeps on giving.
1 green pepper plant – We got 2 peppers this year which is exciting.
2 strawberry plants – So delicious and they keep coming. We’ve had a solid handful of beautiful red ones that we could eat.
3 Broccoli plants – I was really excited to see these come up. They were really good too.
Carrots – Hot mess. I planted them to close together and they grew as one monster mutated carrot… not appealing.
Green onions – So fragrant and so good!
We’re attempting to grow a watermelon and a cantaloupe too – We have 4 cantaloupe and 1 baby watermelon!
Where we started
This area is located in the back right corner of our land. It was weed infested, overgrown and needed lots of help.
Progress
We had a plan and it came together quickly. We measured out how much fencing we wanted then went searching for what we liked. We decided on white Vinyl fencing from Home Depot. I’ll link all the parts and pieces we purchased below.
Once the garden and surround was tilled, we needed to measure out and spray where the posts for the fence were going. Once sprayed out, we started digging out the holes. Once holes were dug we cemented in each post. We had to dig down farther than the frost line since we are in Wisconsin. After the posts were set, we could put up the fencing!
Just about done.
Once the fencing went in we started on the landscaping around it. It was a long day of laying edging and landscape fabric. We also added posts in the garden so we could surround it with chicken wire to keep the critters out.
After that, we planted. We added annuals and perennials around the garden for color and planted all the veggies that we wanted inside. Last step was the watering system that Sean rigged to one of the fence posts. Being able to turn the water on and off from the house has made this whole process so easy. The garden from our house is all the way across the yard and lugging hoses back and forth would have made this a tedious project. I highly recommend thinking about a watering system when you go to set up your garden.
All done!
The end result is amazing. We’re both so happy with how it turned out. We both know nothing about gardening which makes this project even more satisfying because things are growing! We have plans for the future with canning but for now, we are enjoying the benefits and sending lots to friends and family.
One last thing that I will add is give everything more space than you think. I completely underestimated the size of things and how much room vining plants, like cucumber, need.
Thanks so much for reading and watching! Until next time,
