Making Plans For An Awesome Veggie Garden

We’ve spent the last few weeks planning out our first Tennessee garden! We have some seeds started, the ground is prepped, and we put up fencing this past weekend. Having a successful garden is one of our biggest goals for 2022.

What We’re Planting

A little bit of everything is on the list for this year, including the classics: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans, and zucchini. A lot of people say it’s best to start small when you’re new to gardening, but we’re diving right in. We’ve been waiting so long to do this- for us, it’s go big or go home.

Location

We have a beautiful flat, sunny area close to the house (and the water spigot!), so it was a no-brainer where the garden was going to be.

Calvin got this whole area prepped and fenced in for us. Renting a tiller attachment for the tractor was only a few dollars more than a walk-behind one. Not sure if that’s the case everywhere, or if we just lucked out, but it was a huge time saver.

We went with solar-powered electric fencing because we don’t want to mess around with the deer, opossums, armadillos, skunks, chickens, and Will Feral. We’re investing way too much time and energy into this to have our garden be a snack bar for the local wildlife.

The Planting Timeline

I’m starting some seeds, but the majority of them will go straight in the ground. For our county, the last frost is at the end of April. (Hardiness zone 6b/7a.) So we still have several weeks before planting anything. My main job in the meantime is to take care of my little sprouts so we can start off with strong, healthy seedlings when the time comes.

So Much To Learn

I’ve been keeping busy researching and watching videos about gardening. I’m following other garden blogs and talking to some experienced gardeners I know. There’s so much to learn, and I want to soak it all in. But I also know that the best knowledge comes from experience, and from making mistakes along the way. I’m excited to learn as much as I can firsthand, and to have my kids learn right along with me.

So that’s the latest on our first Tennessee garden! Tons of work still lies ahead, but it’s going to be fun, and be an awesome- and hopefully fruitful- experience.

You can follow along for more updates and photos in between blog posts on the Iveyshire Facebook page, or on Instagram @iveyshireblog.

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