Last year we had a massive garden. It took up the majority of our backyard with peas, leeks, carrots, beans, summer squash, winter squash, lettuces, broccoli, tomatoes, collards and herbs. But to be honest, it was a lot of work and a lot of it was a bust. It was extremely hot and dry last summer so while we had lots of plants, many of them didn’t produce. I know we weren’t the only ones that dealt with this issue, since I consulted with friends that garden and they had the same issues. It was really disheartening to put all the work into a garden and not get the produce in the end.
With that in mind, we decided to make our garden smaller this year. In Colorado, greens and lettuces do really well. So we planted lots of these: two kinds of kales, spinach, two kinds of lettuce, arugula, and chard. We got a late start on planting these, but that was probably a good thing since we had snow the first week of May. We decided for our other vegetables to just go ahead and buy the plants for less work and in hopes that they would be more productive. We planted tomatoes, peppers, herbs and summer squash. I am hoping this summer will be more plentiful than last year but that really depends on the heat.
After having this experience of gardening, I think it is a really good thing to do. You get outside, you learn how to grow your own food and you really start caring about how climate impacts you. With that said, I also totally understand why you wouldn’t want to garden. It is very time intensive and the initial costs can be high. Depending on how many years you have been gardening there is compost, top soil (depending on your soil and Denver has lots of clay soil), mulch, fertilizer, and possibly pots depending on how you are gardening. There is also the factor of wood if you are doing a raised bed (which are very popular these days) or just want an area designated for gardening. There is equipment such as shovels, rakes, hoses, etc. Also depending on time and house space some plants you cannot just directly plant seeds into the ground (tomatoes, peppers) so you have to either buy plants or plant seeds indoors until ready. The list can go on an on on supplies needed for a garden, while it is all worth it if you actually get produce, it makes it very hard to justify gardening each year with a poor bounty. I can only imagine how hard it would be to garden with both adults of the house working full time jobs (I stay at home) and having multiple kids in the mix. I hope to have a garden every year. It may not always be large depending on time constraints and keeping within the budget, but it is nice to stick your hands in dirt every once in awhile.
Here is to a bountiful year.
