Welcome to Joyful Garden Coaching! For the past 10+ years I have been gardening in a variety of ways in the Seattle area. Over the last few years my fiance and I have been expanding our home garden and growing more and more of our own food each season. Along the way I’ve helped a few family and friends start or plan for gardens of their own and realized I really enjoy helping others take their first steps towards growing healthy, organic food at home. In 2019, I heard about garden coaching and thought this might be a fun way for me to share what I’ve learned and my own creative take on building a kitchen garden. While I am by no means an expert, I can help you with the basics, refresh an existing garden, or simply give you some ideas, tips or inspiration. I’m excited for us to grow together.
It all started with a 10x10 community garden space at a local p-patch which was mostly shaded by neighboring trees. But even with the challenge of gardening with little sun I was able to harvest sugar snap peas, lots of lettuce, chives, flowers and even some volunteer raspberries that snuck under the retaining wall and into my garden plot. (I was 100% OK with that!) I learned on a small scale how to divide my garden into growing zones based on sun exposure, build a pea trellis and bench from scratch, and even have fun with some garden art.
A few years later I gave up my little p-patch space. Though the
community garden was less than a mile from my apartment, it became a chore to travel
to and from my garden and I found I didn’t have adequate time to take care of
it. I chose to cancel my membership and let one of the many names on the wait
list have their chance to tend the earth.
A year or two later, the longing to have a garden just
outside my kitchen window, where I could grab fresh salad greens or toss a
sprig of fresh rosemary into a dish, came back very strong. Somehow the Universe
answered my prayers and my boyfriend ended up moving into a home that had plum trees,
pear trees, an overgrown herb garden, and a huge 30x40 dilapidated garden space.
It was begging to be revived and I was ready for the challenge.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would end up with
such a huge garden space, and I certainly didn’t know how much joy and sorrow (yes,
sorrow) I was in for. I pulled from my experience gardening at the p-patch,
dropped about $500 at the local nursery on seeds, starts, and tools and jumped
right in.
That summer, we ate fresh tomatoes, green beans, all sorts
of salad greens, arugula, summer squash and snap peas. We learned how to build
trellises out of pretty much anything (including old chain link fence gates),
how to build a much-needed scarecrow, and that you can eat the pods that sprout
off of radishes that bolt…and they are delicious. In the fall, we harvested
sugar pumpkins and I made my first pumpkin pie from scratch. With all that
success, there was plenty of (perceived) failure.
I cried when these little grey bugs absorbed my beautiful kale plant. Aphids. I was crushed.
Frustration grew when I noticed my carrots were staying just a few inches tall. Aren’t carrots supposed to be easy to grow?!?
I was angry when we found the foot-tall corn stalks chopped
off right at the base and laying un-eaten on the ground. I still have no idea
what that was, but we assumed squirrels.
The radishes bolted, the corn that made it were full of
earwigs inside, the cucumber was devoured by pests, the pumpkin vines were
covered in mildew, and the watermelon vine that started out really well just
dried right up.
I honestly thought I had failed. My thumb couldn’t have been
any more brown. Instead of looking at the 25% success we had, I was devastated
by the 75% “failure”.
That was the year I learned, that this is what happens when
you garden. Sometimes you have a bounty. Sometimes you grow beautiful zucchini
plants that never produce even ONE zucchini. (Yes, that can happen!) Sometimes…well,
most of the time…you buy a bag of hundreds of lady bugs to come and eat all of
the aphids and they all fly away the next day.
In my mind, it is the moment that comes next that is the
most important. It is the moment when you pick yourself up, put your shovel in the
dirt and plant another seed, that you truly become a gardener. The reality is, the joys and sorrows of gardening will
happen year after year. You will nurture each seedling. You will learn new
tricks. You will have bounties and you will have busts. But once you taste the
fruits of your labor and you learn how adjusting just a little can make a big
difference between harvesting one tomato or dozens, it is ALL worth it.
My love of gardening bloomed in this space. But then, he
moved.
A drastic shift happened when our massive yard with fruit
trees, koi pond and gardens became a two bedroom apartment with a 4x8 western
facing deck. I desperately missed my garden. But knowing that purchasing a home
was next on the list, we made due with a patio full of containers growing
herbs, lettuce greens and flowers. Nights on the patio with a glass of wine and
much less garden work became heavenly.
The next garden, and my current space to grow, has been expanding
every year at our home.
In 2015 we moved in together. Tucked away in the side yard of our home, we immediately built three 4’x7’ garden boxes and an herb garden. Last year we added a 6’x8’ greenhouse, a dwarf blueberry bush in a container, and a fig tree in a pot. New for this year, we’ve added 3.5 large garden boxes, a raspberry patch, and two giant tubs for potatoes in the front yard. Following our success last year, we are continuing to experiment with 5-gallon buckets with water reservoirs for tomatoes and peppers. This summer, we will be adding 8 of those buckets to the flat top roof of our garage.
While I had visions of the front yard expansion during last
year’s growing season, we were overwhelmed with other projects and it wasn’t
until we were blessed with so much extra time at home during the Coronavirus pandemic
that we were able to make it all happen. There is plenty more room to add more
and we have dreams of blueberry bushes, a plum tree, dwarf citrus in the greenhouse,
mason bee houses for better pollination, as well as flower beds and lavender
hedges, but some of that will definitely have to wait until next year.
The best part of the front yard expansion is it was created utilizing
mostly supplies we already had on hand. Wood from a deck my fiance had recently
replaced became our garden beds. Rubbermaid tubs he emptied during spring
cleaning are now home for potatoes and they sit within a box made from leftover
siding from a shed he tore down years ago. We even made an arbor out of branches
he trimmed from a tree in our backyard. With a lot of creativity and an
abundance of boredom, my fiance created the most beautiful front yard garden
space. He has even set me up with a rain barrel that gravity feeds my garden
hose for watering. I am truly amazed.
With all of this new space to grow, it is my goal to produce
50% of our food this season. It’s a bold goal, but we will talk more about the original
drive behind this goal in another post. For now, I am driven by necessity and a
desire to have more control over our food supply. I’m sticking with what I know
will produce quickly this time of year, like kale, salad greens and radishes,
but also I’m planning ahead for tomatoes, peppers, beans, and onions throughout
the summer. I’m hoping for a bounty this year!
If you would like to learn more about how to grow your own fresh veggies and herbs, especially if you live in the Northwest area, I hope my story has inspired you to start. Joyful Garden Coaching is here to help you learn the basics of building your own kitchen garden, whether you have a yard, a community garden space, a few pots on a patio, or just your kitchen window. It certainly doesn’t have to be as ambitious as my current set up, but I encourage you to start to grow at least one type of veggie you enjoy to eat. My recommendation is to start with a few herbs in a container or a few pots in your kitchen window. You decide what works best for you and how you want to grow.
