Introducing My Garden

Today I am going to introduce my garden and give a bit of its history. 

In 2017 I purchased my home in central New Jersey (Zone 7a). I was terrified to care for a house, with so things to take care of and things that could break. We (my husband and I) had owned a condo before, so we had no idea how to maintain the outside of a home. We didn’t cut the grass for a month after we bought the home- we didn’t even think about it!

However, not too long after we moved in, I realized I liked maintaining my home and took a lot of pride in my landscaping. I admired all my neighbors houses and took pictures of their plants so I could try to find them at a nursery.

In 2020, along with many others, I stared my first vegetable garden. I had been thinking about starting a vegetable garden for a few years, but never knew how to start.

After talking about it for months, my husband purchased me a raised planter garden bed as a surprised. Here is a link to the one I have. I put the raised planter garden bed on my patio. I knew nothing about gardening. I had never read a single article or blog post on the subject. I had heard about Burpee from a neighbor, so I purchased plants and seeds from their website. While I had some success with a Sweet 100 Cherry tomato plant I bought and a cucumber plant that I actually grew from seed, I did not have a lot of success that. However, I was hooked.

I added a few pots to my patio, but that was not enough space for the big plans I had. I then expanded adding two – four by four in ground beds the next summer. In 2021 I also received a Rise indoor garden as a gift from family. This indoor garden got me through the winter months, but cannot compare to my outdoor garden. In 2021 I also began compositing, which is a subject for its own blog post.

In 2022, my garden has continued to grow with the addition of two more four by four in ground garden beds. I have learned a lot in the last few years, not just from my own experience but from articles, blogs and the hundreds of videos I have watched on Youtube about gardening and every related subject to gardening (like composting, bees, hummingbirds… the list goes on). I love to visit new nurseries in town. I am still working on my summer 2022 garden, while planning for fall 2022 and spring 2023!

Here is what is currently in my garden:

• 2 Sun gold tomato plants
• 1 Sweet 100 Cherry hybrid plant
• 1 Rutgers Heirloom tomato plant
• 1 Darkstar hybrid tomato plant
• 1 Hungarian wax pepper plant
• 1 jalapeño plant
• 1 Cubanelle hot pepper 
• 1 Sweet Success hybrid, cucumber plant
• 1 Eggplant
• 1 Little Finger eggplant 
• 1 Green pepper plant
• 1 Mixed pepper plant
• 1 Mocha swirl plant
• 1 Zucchini plant
• Green Beans
• A hydrangea Shrub
• Assorted flowers

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