I love Annie’s story! From reminiscing of fond childhood memories to experiencing the learning curve of gardening on her own! The successes and failures vary from year to year, but with an attitude of perseverance like Annie’s, I know her garden will continue to grow and flourish as the years go on!
Here’s to looking forward to many more years and memories made in your own garden!
Make sure to check out Laura, Stacey, and Amber’s stories from earlier this week!
Annie
Name: Annie
Type of gardener: Intermediate and primarily vegetables
“When I was little and lived in upstate NY my dad and grandpa were very big into gardening. Up until I was 9 years old we had a garden and would can pickles (that is all I can remember canning, but I’m sure there was more). My interaction was always helping and doing what my attention span would allow. I always helped, but never had any true ownership. When I was 10 we moved to Ohio and with the demands of my dad’s new job, he quit gardening.
Fast forward 16 years and my boyfriend and I bought our first home together in a farm town outside of Pittsburgh, PA. I always had a fondness for indoor plants and attempted a few window gardens while living in the city. Before purchasing our home together Kevin converted a raised flower bed at his first home into a little vegetable garden, sparking so much happiness and memories from my childhood. From this spark, when looking for our home together one of my “must haves” was an area for a garden.
We moved in our home at the end of August 2018 and the previous owner had built a slightly raised bed, the garden is built into a small hill and half raised for a level area. The year we purchased the home they had started a garden, but you could barely tell due to the over growth of weeds. There is a very small pond directly above where the garden is, and surrounding the interior of the fence were cat tails as tall as me. Even with the insane weeds and lack of care, we had a handful of tomatoes, cucumbers and decorative gourds that year.
Last year was the first year I started the garden on my own and I had a lot of learning curves. I apparently did not remember much from my childhood gardening. I also had a difficult time with the pests. I lost my zucchini to aphids, all of my leafy greens were eaten up by caterpillars, and something thought my roma tomatoes were tasty. I also had an incident where a cherry tomato “tree” fell on me. This plant got so big and I couldn’t even keep up picking the tomatoes they grew so fast, I was overwhelmed. Honestly I don’t really like cherry tomatoes, I just chose to plant it because my dad always had.
Overall, I did pretty well and was proud of myself. I even canned homemade relish, banana peppers, and jalapenos. This year I have more of a strategy and I’m hoping it works. Due to the virus and having a lot of free time, I have taken on the challenge of starting my plants from seeds. Something else from my childhood, I again did not retain the accurate knowledge of. Thankfully, Kevin grew up in a town where they teach you how to garden and start seeds in grade school. I’m looking forward to this years adventures and hope in the next few years we can get some more fruit bushes, egg laying chickens, and build a little green house.
Annie Beck
