About my Journey....Not So Dirt Cheap.... Part 2
To continue where I left off in part 1 of my journey, I had just finished planting out my very first garden! To say I was excited was an understatement. It cost me roughly $160 to start my backyard transformation.
So there I was, admiring my newly planted garden bed. What a site! It was planted chock full of broccoli, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, and a few sprouting herbs. It didn't look like much at first, but I was proud of it.
Despite the relentless mosquitoes, hot sun, and downright miserable conditions, I vowed to make every effort to maintain it and produce some food. I was like a nervous hen, hovering over eggs that would soon hatch. In this case, it was veggies instead of eggs.
I tended the hell out of that garden bed. Each day, I would go outside and spend at least 2 hours inspecting for bug damage, weather damage, or any new growth. It was such an exhilarating time. When I got home from work after a 12 hour shift, I would go inspect my tiny plants in the fading dusk. It felt relaxing to end my day in such a peaceful place, even if I could only barely see my plants. I was enthralled, and loving the space I had created in my backyard.
Within a few weeks, I decided that I was going to need a second bed. The garden fever had taken hold, and now, I was headed out of control. I had never grown a single item of food, yet here I was, ready to invest in another garden bed.
The next thing I knew, I found myself standing in my backyard, holding a piece of lumbar steady so that my guy could screw my second bed together. I was so impatient back then, but it was like a lightening bolt had hit me. I had to have a garden ASAP! I was so late already, but I needed to have something grow before the killer frosts set in.
Looking back, I should have waited until the grass died in my bed before I tried to plant anything. I still have grass trying to take over those beds years later. I should have waited for the right time to plant. I should have done more research. I should have done so many things before actually breaking my first ground. There were many things I did wrong that first year, but the one thing I did get right was to just get out there and do it.
Before long, I had spent over double my original investment. I am pretty sure that I spent a total of around $500 for the two garden bed materials, $30 in live starts, newly purchased seeds at $2.59 per pack, and other miscellaneous items.
That’s a big investment on a gamble. Who did I think I was spending all of this money on something I had never done before? Let me point out here that it was actually money I didn’t have since I put everything on a credit card. I convinced myself that I would be saving so much money in the long run on our groceries that it was justified. I gambled that I could produce enough food to actually save money. Well, as a first time gardener back then, let me just say that I was very ambitious. I think we all can be that way when we start gardening.
But, I knew who I was. I was a person who just learned after various research about how my food at the grocery store was tainted. And once you know about those facts, there’s no going back. I was also a person who was inspired to do something about it. I was going to take control of my food, and improve the health and overall well being of my family. I was a person with the gardening bug who had credit cards. I was full throttle.
I vowed to make this thing work. I would read every article, listen to every pod cast, buy every book, if that’s what it took to prove that I would not fail at this endeavor I had spent so much money on and invested effort in.
Little did I know the universe had other plans for me. When you have your whole adventure planned out and you think that your wildest dreams will come true, it can be a very satisfying experience. The problem with that is that life isn’t scripted and laughs at your plans. Just when you think you have everything sorted out, life gives you a kick in the pants? Well, I got get a good swift kick in the britches by mother nature herself.
After a long day of work, I went out to my garden to inspect the latest progress. To my utter shock, I found that all of my broccoli plants had been chewed down to the nubs. OMG! WTF?
Curse words flew out of my mouth faster that a speeding bullet. I thought I may be dreaming. What in the world had happened? Never in my life had I been so surprised!
The lettuce was just plain gone, like it never existed, just dimples in the dirt where they once had been. The broccoli plants were nothing but little, green, gnawed stumps sticking out of the soil. My tomatoes and peppers were bent and broken as if something had laid down and rolled around in them. It was heartbreaking to say the least.
I could only stand there and gawk at, how in one solitary day, my garden had been completely decimated by the local wildlife. At the time, I had no idea what had caused the damage, but I knew it was a critter. I have a 6-foot tall wooden fence that encloses my entire back yard, so it wasn’t deer. That still left a myriad of culprits. I didn’t have the knowledge or expertise to determine which rodent was to blame.
I retreated back to the house that day thinking I was a failure. I thought I was stupid for trying something I knew nothing about. I had no idea how to move forward from this disaster, and was out of time and money.
I felt even dumber when I got my credit card statements later that month. They way I saw things now, I had spent a good chunk of change for the pleasure of tearing up my lawn and growing a pile of dirt. I was so disappointed and heartbroken over the death of my little dream of providing my family nutritious food. I was sure that this was the end of my little garden.
Then one day soon after, I was washing dishes at my kitchen sink. I gazed outside the window overlooking my sink, and noticed some movement near my forsaken garden beds. I couldn’t quite see what the brown blur was, but it was moving. I didn’t know what I was seeing, but a panic set in. I headed out back to protect what was left in the beds, and maybe salvage a scrap of my dignity.
As I approached, the brown blur suddenly sat up, aware of my presence. It was a large, toothy, ground hog! This fat little rodent had killed my gardening dream faster than Round Up. The disgusting ball of fur actually glared at me, made a noise, and went scurrying off under my fence while chewing a piece of broccoli stub.
This was war! How dare that devilish thing gorge on my vegetables. I mean, did he have to eat everything in site all at once? Did he have to come back for the meager scraps he had left the first time? No way was I going to let an over-sized rat ruin my little dream.
Again I set out to rack up a pile of credit card debt. I headed straight out to the nearest DIY store and purchased some fencing, metal poles, and of course a critter trap. Add another $230 to my running tab for constructing my garden.
Since I live in a neighborhood, shooting that darn thing was out of the question, even with a small .22 which sounds more like a cap gun going off. Plus, I had no skills or desire to shoot an animal that isn’t used for food. I have 2 dogs, so I couldn’t use poison. Nor, would I want to even if I didn’t have the dog concern. I didn’t want to contaminate my soil with any more toxins than it already contained. That left me with only 1 option, a live trap. I secretly decided that if I managed to trap it, my man would just have to decide what to do with it from there. I had no intentions of going anywhere near the trap with a large thieving gopher inside.
Luckily, I have 2 wonderful canines who decided to help me out. I let my dogs outside into the backyard the next morning after setting the trap, and as I walked towards my garden, both of them took off in a beeline ahead of me. Before I knew what was happening, one of them appeared running back towards me with the gopher hanging dead in its mouth. Officially, I was appalled at the fact that my dog had just killed another living thing. That wasn’t really acceptable in my book, but he was acting on instinct, and he is a dog. Deep inside, I felt a deep sense of relief to get rid of that thing without having to do the dirty work myself. I’m a coward, I know.
There was just one minor problem. Being a proud dogie who had just hunted, ran down, and killed his first prey, he decided that he was going to hang on to it for a while. I wasn’t going to let him eat it, so a sense of dread came over me as I realized I would have to somehow get him to release it, and then get rid of it. I will spare you the details of how I got him to drop it, and then how I got rid of it, but it’s not a fond memory of mine.
OK. So now my garden was rodent free, but there was really nothing left of it. I decided to pay a visit to my old friend, Mama J for some much needed gardening advise. She assured me that if I keep watering the broccoli plants, I would still be able to get some small off-shoots. There was also some time left to start over with lettuce. Sadly, nothing could be done about the peppers or tomatoes, but as usual, Mama J gave me plenty from her harvested stash to console me.
Still, I had an over-bearing sense of failure as I left her house. I was so disappointed that my garden had succumb to such an unbelievable circumstance. All of my hard work, down the drain. When I arrived home, I went straight to my backyard to water the tiny stubs of broccoli and throw in some lettuce seeds. I had no real hope, just faith and my friend’s advise.
The garden spirit was still alive somewhere inside me and it wasn’t going to let me quit. I continued tending what was left of my garden, and I was able to get quit a bit of lettuce for salads, and a few tiny broccoli shoots. It wasn’t a success by any means, but it was a start.
The cost of those few salads and broccoli shoots cost me about $800. Not exactly the cost savings I was hoping for. But I did manage to grow something, and that was enough for me to push on and try again.
I learned a few very valuable lessons that first year. The first being, that any successful en-devour deserves a well thought out plan. If I had some proper planning, and patience, I would have been much more successful. I will advise anyone who wants to embark on a similar journey to learn from my obvious mistakes, and plan, plan, plan.
The next valuable lesson, is to keep on trying. I never knew how hard it was to grow your own food. But, I decided that if people thousands of years ago could figure it out without any help from you tube or google, then I could suck it up and figure it out too. Gardening is about endurance, and learning as you go. Trial and error are very valuable tools when it comes to gardening. Experience goes a long way, but you don’t need it to get started. Admit what you don’t know and seek out opportunities to learn from someone or something.
Another precious tidbit of wisdom I have learned is to be open to failure. Gardening presents a myriad of failures. Some are in your control, others are not. Don’t let those failures make you doubt yourself and give up. Learn from them. Keep pushing on. You can only benefit from gardening, whether its from the exercise you get, the fresh air you breathe by getting outside, or the healthy food you are able to grow, it’s worth it.
I still have gophers in my yard, yearly. Rabbits too. I think my garden may be a breeding ground for all small, veggie eating critters. I can't keep them out no matter what I put in their way, so now I just learn to live with it. The bugs are relentless as well. I lost a whole crop of cabbage last year to Japanese beetles It's all ok. I can manage my losses now, and since I don't spend a lot to maintain my garden, it's never a costly loss. But, I always remember, Mother Nature is Boss..
Finally, please let me stress that you don’t have to spend a lot to garden. I spent way too much because I didn't know what I was doing. There are many ways to cut your costs if you are willing to learn. I will help you along the way. Don’t get caught up in aesthetics or marketing ploys. The plants do not care what they are grown in, so it doesn’t have to be pretty, just cheap. Always try to cut costs when you can by re-using, recycling, and re-purposing. Stick to the basics and don’t get overwhelmed. You can do this thing!
Now, get off of your computer, go outside, and start planning your garden today!
