In my first post I will briefly describe the evolution of my garden from 2015 to the current year, in other words history of the gardening adventure.
I wanted a house with many fruit trees for as long as I can remember. I spent my childhood in my grandparents’ big backyard with dozens of fruit trees and a large garden. I loved spending time and running around the garden, picking fruits and vegetables. I wanted to give my kids the same experience since those are some of my fondest memories.
So in 2014 we moved into a house with a backyard which had two pomegranate trees, two loquat, one large mulberry, one walnut, one sweet lemon, one Eureka lemon and three small avocado trees. The backyard didn’t have any grass, so we decided to put a small garden in the sunnier part of it.
History of The Gardening Adventure
Year 2015
In 2015 I had a 4×8 ft in ground garden with a few tomatoes and peppers (purchased from Costco), lettuce, onion and radishes (which I started from seeds). I also had 10 tomato plants started from seeds, which I grew in containers.
Year 2016
In 2016 my in ground garden doubled in size. This time I bought tomatoes and peppers from Armstrong Gardens (for some reason my local Costco didn’t sell any young tomatoes or pepper plants that year). Later in the year, I visited a friend of mine who has a beautiful container garden. He inspired me to add a few containers myself, using a home made potting soil recipe from him.
Year 2017
The year 2017 was a transitioning year. We moved to a new house in the middle of the summer and the garden was designed to be moved. I planned ahead in spring and planted the majority of the tomato and pepper plants in containers.
Year 2018
2018 was the year with 49 tomato plants, which is way too many and I blame Armstrong Gardens for it! They had tomato plants on sale for 99c and of course I ended up buying a lot of varieties, which added to my already numerous plants which I started from seeds.
Year 2019
In 2019, my goals were to switch from a mostly container garden back to an in ground garden, plant fewer tomato plants and try companion planting to help with pest control. I ended up with “only” 36 tomato plants, 80+ pepper plants and around 40 eggplants. That happen because of beginner’s mistake and emotional attachment to seedlings. I could feed an entire village for a few months and I made many neighbors and friends happy 🙂
