18 days from seed (pictured left to right: top row — sugar baby watermelon, poinsett 76 cucumber, sugar cherry tomato, bottom row — purple dragon carrot, chantenay red core carrot, carolina wonder bell pepper, eva purple ball tomato. All seeds came from The Urban Harvest.
I’ve wanted to have a vegetable garden for YEARS, but never made it a priority. However, the allure HAS kept me researching and learning along the way. I joined relevant Facebook groups (using key words to my location and desired kind of gardening), enrolled in informative classes (most notably, “Raised Bed Gardening” through Urban Harvest), and scrolled page after page of higher education expertise (including various parts of the UF/IFAS website and its seminole county extension). SO, when I was gifted with a couple of raised garden beds (we are currently renting, so I can’t plant in-ground) — this one from Lowes and this self-watering one from Costco — near the end of planting season, I actually felt pretty prepared to jump in.
I live in a fairly favorable climate for growing things, but planting time for most fruits and veggies wraps at the end of February, so I immediately went searching for seeds. Picking what to plant had everything to do with what was still eligible for planting FROM SEED (I don’t have the patience or time to make seedlings and transplant) and what I might actually want to feed myself and family. One bed was intended to be vegetables and the other herbs. I planted the veggie garden on February 18 and the herb garden on March 4th (soil info below).
Planting from seed: Dill, mint, strawberries, stevia, thyme, chives, basil, and baby mustard greens.
Soil: 4.5 cubic feed in each bed, a 3:1 mixture of Fox Farm’s Ocean Forest and a Mushroom Compost, mixed and made moist on the day of planting
Raised beds: Raised Garden Bed Elevated Planter Box 23-in W x 47-in L x 30-in H with Drainage Holes (Lowes) and CedarCraft Self-Watering Elevated Spruce Planter (Costco)
Seeds: Ordered online from Urban Harvest and grabbed in-person at Lukas Nursery