My first year having my own garden I grew stuff that I mostly already eat throughout the year, tomatoes, cucumber, basil, lettuce and peppers. Planting seedlings and watching the plants grow and produce vegetables amazed me. This year I am venturing out and trying to grow cantaloupe, squash, zucchini, pumpkin, eggplant, red onion, more variety of tomatoes, peas, grapefruit, celery, watermelon. Non-Vegetables include sunflowers, poppies, and a gardenia plant.
Mistakes: I started everything from seeds this year and once they grew big enough I transplanted them into bigger pots to grow, however when transplanting I have lost track of what is what. All the squash, zucchini, cucumber and cantaloupe kind of look about the same right now. Once they grow a little more I will be able to tell the difference, I suggest keeping track of everything by marking the pots either with a marker or colored tape.
I take pride in growing everything from seeds, it takes more time and patience, but you feel more accomplished once everything has grown. Also this way if you are wanting an all organic garden, which I am doing, you can check if the seeds are all organic, non gmos and if they have been treated with any chemicals that are harmful to bees.
The peas however did take off, but I quickly learned that these are direct-sow. Which means wherever you plan on growing them (example, a raised bed), is where you should start to plant them. I however had the unfortunate mistake of growing the pea seeds in a starter growing kit, they all took off with nothing to grab onto.
It is my first year trying to grow grapefruit. I took the seeds from one I bought from the store and planted them in dirt to see what would come. Sure enough they started to grow, right now they are tiny little guys, but have a waxy stiff leaf which I have never seen before. I'm excited to see what will come of them.
