After much nagging and determination, we have finally started a vegetable patch. Well more a vegetable bucket, but it is better than nothing and we all gotta start somewhere, right?
This is my second attempt at growing something edible. Usually, my kind of garden work is, put it in the ground and walk away. If it lives it lives, if it dies, I had too much interaction with it. Vegetables usually require a whole lot of care and there is the concern of pests and stuff, however, through my job I have learnt something and I want to put it to the test.
Apparently, if your soil is correct, as in it is healthy, balanced and lively, your plant will protect itself from pests and grow to fruit with vegetables with actual nutrition. The whole concept is, feed your soil, not your plants. Which makes sense, since it is the microorganisms in your soil that feed your plant. So you want to feed what is going to feed your plant.
The bucket tinkering
I have a very shady garden, except for one area, where the pool backwashes. Thus we can’t use that section for our veg patch. Which is what led us to the idea of using a bucket. So we grabbed a bucket and the drill and got to work.
Once the drainage holes were in place we debated where to place the bucket. We have yet to settle on a proper placement for the bucket, but we don’t really need to worry about that just yet.
Prepping the soil
I had untied my bag of the potting mix first so I added my bag while le boyfriend took the picture. He had managed to unknot his while I was untying the vegetable mix packet. We followed instructions and placed the vegetable mix on top of the potting soil.
The potting soil and vegetable mix we used are a mix of fertiliser, earthworm castings (earthworm poop basically), rock dust and a bunch of other things that are said to be needed for healthy, living soil.
The watering and revival
We had some potting mix and vegetable mix leftover so we gave a little attention to my poor lavender plant, Lav Lav, yes I named it and yes it is a Harry Potter reference. I honestly do not know how it is still alive. It has stubbornly revived itself every summer for the past 8 years and I love it for that!
We then hunted down the watering can and gave both our bucket and Lav Lav a good watering. The bucket we watered until the water started to leak out of a few of the drainage holes.
Now we need to keep the soil moist and damp for the next week. That means I now need to wait a week before I can plant the seeds that I have commandeered from le boyfriend’s mom. I shall be patient (and hopefully diligent).
That sums up the more exciting and fun part of my day. So yeah, today in 2019 I prepped a bucket with high hopes and ambitions.
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