My New Garden as an Executive Function Victory, Part III

I decided to make raised beds to grow my veggies and fruits. That seems to be the best option based on my research. But that just added another project and more stuff to learn about… and more money to spend. Ultimately I ended up deciding to focus on the landscaping project during the spring/summer of 2013. I figured that the soil safety was the most important. Plus, once I saw what the new yard was like, I could better plan the beds. Of course that meant a whole ‘nother year of being patient… and it nearly killed me.

But I used that year well. I did research on raised beds, reread my gardening books, took a wood working class, watched videos on making raised beds on YouTube, learned about garden covers, irrigation, rain barrels, compost and measured my new front yard about 30 times.

Then when the spring of 2014 was on the horizon… we had our second child due on April 10th. It didn’t seem possible to build a garden from scratch with a newborn at home. I certainly didn’t have the time or energy to start seeds inside in April. To be honest, I was already a bit overwhelmed with all that I wanted to do but had no experience doing. Add in a baby, and it seemed impossible. I was super bummed out to have to wait a whole year more.

And, that is when I realized that I was at that moment of having planned as much as I could and that I was defeating myself. Would it be easier with a one year old at home? Probably not. I couldn’t plan anymore.  I just needed to start doing and figure out what I didn’t know. Everything that didn’t work would only be a learning experience.

Turns out, I planned it close to perfectly. I built seven raised beds from scratch. (I was only going to do five, but I still had a driveway full of gravel and soil so I had to buy more wood and build more. I planted 22 different fruits, veggies, and herbs, (more if you count the different varieties of tomatoes,) all from seed the week before memorial day. As of today, I have my first veggies. I’ll be harvesting snow peas, chard, beets, and sunburst squash by next week.

Almost everything is growing. I’ve made some mistakes and will do some things differently next year. But even the mistakes were amazing learning experiences. All because I planned my little heart out… and knew when to act. Check out these pictures of my garden taken this morning.