Your Pandemic DIY!
Gardening at Home PROJECT: Potted Vegetable Garden Hannah Emmerson
GARDEN TYPE: The first thing I did when my job was laid off was to head to the nearest garden store and panic buy seeds to start a garden. I tried to only buy the seeds for plants that I couldn’t readily germinate from my weekly groceries. As long as you buy organic you can regrow things like tomato’s, squash, and even celery, spring onions, potatoes and garlic from your kitchen scraps. I even started a peanut plant from the raw peanuts I’ve been snacking on!
Getting Started
With that in mind I bought broccoli, carrots, cabbage, spinach and kale seeds to start my garden. Five weeks later I was getting my first beans and harvesting the best tasting spinach I’ve ever had. What was the hardest part? The hardest part of the journey has been finding soil. I bought some potting soil from the nursery and was even lucky enough to get a couple of buckets of free compost from Marshfolly. That needs a sifter to get the bigger bits out, but you can’t argue with free. To help this endeavor I decided to start my own compost. What was The Easiest Part? Honestly this was the most rewarding part of my lockdown. I have always wanted a garden but my life before was so busy that I would forget to water, repot or care for plants until it was too late and then I would over love and drown them. Only the hardiest of succulents survived me. With the extra time on my hands gardening has given me purpose to my day and a lot more confidence in my skills to keep things alive. While I’m not ready to feed a whole family from the garden yet it’s rewarding to think that with time I could! And I encourage anyone out there to try. You might be impressed with what you can grow too!
Marshfolly soil
HANNAH’s AMAZING DIY COMPOST!
The easiest way I found was to use a bucket with a secure lid. I cut the bottom out and drilled a few holes in the sides. Sprayed it brown so as to blend in better and buried it as far down as I could in the garden. All my coffee grinds, peanut shells, eggshells and veggie cuts all go into the bucket and here’s hoping I have some grade A soil.
the rewards
www.ipn.bm • June 2020 - Outdoor Living • Island Property News 11
