When we moved into our new home in late February I was most excited about the backyard. Our old apartment boasted only a square concrete block backed up to a steep hill. I wanted to try my hand at some Tennessee gardening but had to wait two years until I had some land to work with.
This year I will be documenting the beginnings of my new garden; the challenges, successes, and failures.
I am running three gardening projects throughout 2024 and at the end of the year, I will weigh the pros and cons of each.
I will create:
- A bucket garden on my porch
- One in-ground bed
- Two raised beds
Our property is a blank canvas, so I will start from square one. When we first moved in, our main priority was sourcing and purchasing a lawn mower to manage the grass. It was too cold to do any gardening and we were busy setting up the house for the first month so we postponed doing seed sprouting indoors. Our first few weeks were a bust.
Things kicked off in late April when I started my bucket garden with two tomato plants and one basil plant that I transplanted into five-gallon buckets and placed on the sunniest part of our porch.
On the same day I also purchased and planted mint and parsley plants into an in-ground bed I dug when we first moved in (when it was too cold to plant anything but I had tons of energy).
On April 23rd my husband built two 8’x4’x1′ metal raised beds. We filled the bottom of the beds with cedar branches to mimic the forest floor, increase drainage, and reduce our soil volume requirements.
We only purchased enough soil to fill one bed, but my goal is to fill the second bed this summer after we have collected some compost to fertilize the soil. It will give me time to save up for more supplies and offer a chance to compare store-bought fertilizer with our homemade material.
I will plant tomatoes, kale, radishes, carrots, and zucchini in my two raised beds. I am starting all the seeds indoors to give them the best chance of survival. So far the radishes and zucchini have sprouted.
Each horizontal row is a different species.
Pictured from the bottom up are radishes
(hence why they sprouted so fast),
kale, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, and sunflowers.
The sunflowers I intend to plant into the ground nearby to my birdhouse.
I plan to spout more radishes partway through the season just before my first harvest so I can replant and have a second harvest before the fall.
Most recently I attended the Exchange Place’s 38th Annual Spring Garden Fair on Saturday, April 27th. It is the oldest garden fair in the region and features thousands of plants for sale – perennials, annuals, trees and shrubs – with an emphasis on herbs, natives and heirlooms, along with garden-related arts and crafts. Along with gardening supplies, plants, and information, there was also artisan crafts, traditional music, shearing and weaving demonstrations, and the master garden which boasted a traditional dye garden for the Weavers and Spinners guild of Northeast Tennessee.
My main goal was to find a mature rosemary bush to plant in my yard. Someday I would like several large rosemary bushes for drying and general aroma. My favorite memories of childhood are built upon the herbal evergreen scent on my grandparent’s property where we lived for a time.
I procured my rosemary plant but have not yet decided where to plant it. In my next gardening post, I will update you on my raised beds, bucket garden, in-ground bed, and any harvests I have made!
Shannon Bisceglia 