3 Things we Won’t do in Our Garden this Year
In the summer of 2022, we started our first garden. Lance and I both had not done anything gardening let alone our own garden before in dry Wyoming. We built our garden (see the other blog about the materials used and how we made it.). And set out to grow some fresh veggies to can and enjoy for our family. We knew that the summer was going to be the summer where we would learn a ton about the area we are growing in, what things to grow, and even how much to grow. What we didn’t know was things like the quality of our soil in our garden and starting our seeds, or how to add life back into our soil and how to protect it from bugs.
So, here are the 3 things I won’t do in our garden this year or for that matter ever again.
The first one is seed starting. I saw a lot of people who lived in more humid climates do the jug-starting method for starting seeds. It is supposed to be like a mini greenhouse for the seeds adding just the right amount of warmth and moisture so that the seeds sprout easily. So we thought we would give it a try. We collected a bunch of jugs and got to work. Planted all of the seeds in jugs by the beginning of April and placed them outside in the best and most sunny area of our yard. We Kept them moist but the issue was the wind. The wind in Wyoming can be very strong and dries out everything and not to mention the jugs would blow away and topple our seed jugs. We also had some weird spring weather that had sub-zero temps which made the seeds really not want to begin sprouting or the ones that did end up freezing because we didn’t bring them in at the right time. So by the time June came around and we were abet plant I barely had any seed starts to plant and ended up direct sowing most of our garden. So if you are new to gardening check your area for what climate and conditions you will see in the spring to know if jug-starting seeds are the way to go. This year we will be starting our seeds inside.
The second thing we won’t be doing in our garden is we won’t use random dirt. We had leftover dirt in our year from the previous owner and decided to use a lot of it to fill up our garden beds. The mistake here was most of the soil had way too much clay in it and our soil ended up being too hard for things like onion, garlic, and carrots and even dried out too quickly for the squash plants. It also brought so many different bugs and pests that we found it to be too much of a hassle. So, this year we will be adding more to our soil including compost from our animals.
The third thing that we won’t be doing in our garden this year is making sure we do our research on pests to catch them before they get worse. We found these odd eggs on the leaves of our squash plants. They looked kind of like ladybug eggs so we said to keep them they are going to take care of the pests. Little did we know they were actually squash bugs. Squash bugs will completely wipe out your squash if you don’t catch it soon enough by sucking the sap out of the leaves and veggies. Unfortunately, we did not catch it in time and ended up losing all of our squash plants. So be sure to have a book or two on pests and how to take care of them naturally. This year we will be burning the eggs with a creme brûlée torch before they produce more and totally kill our squash.
In the end, we know we will be learning more since the weather in Wyoming is so unpredictable that we never know what to expect. Plus, we are doing our best to try to bring our soil back to life by adding compost, nutrients, and even sand back into our beds. And then we will be learning all about potential pests in our area (like grasshoppers) that can wipe out our garden.
Happy gardening! What kinds of things did you learn about this year that you won’t be doing in your garden? Comment below we’d love to hear your thoughts.
