Starting at the Bottom
About a year ago, I committed to the idea of starting up a garden. After spending years working community gardens and struggling with perfectionism and fear with starting my own, I finally became comfortable with taking this leap. So, I will be slowly turning my backyard into my dream garden. In the effort to get something going I decided to start small and focus on building a compost first. I got some baskets from the Dollar Tree, dug a hole, harvested some worms, and just started throwing in the kitchen scraps. I figured the best way to have living things thrive in my garden is to start with the dying things.
Now on to the important stuff!
Here’s what I’m working with.
I live in Powder Springs, GA and according to the USDA, my hardiness zone is 7b. This tells important information about the climate in my area and the types of plants that would fare well in my garden. The USDA Hardiness Zone Map provides this information by separating North America into 13 planting zones where each zone is 10° Fahrenheit warmer/colder than the neighboring zones in an average winter. The “a” or “b” accompanying the number represents a 5° F difference. For example, zone 7, as a whole, has an average low ranging from 0-10° F and the “b” represents a range from 5-10° F.
So, knowing all this, I can start my garden setting myself up to win with crops that will ACTUALLY thrive! I have also found other resources such as Gardenia, Gardener’s Path, and the USDA site, and have been using these as my guides with knowing how to bring my dream garden to life.
Story time!!
My first plant-scapade (lol).
My first try at growing something happened back in August. One of my aunties came back from Nigeria with some waterleaf and I decided to snag a couple of stems and experiment with gardening.
Let me be a plant nerd real quick:
Waterleaf, Talinum fruticosum, is native to many tropical regions, such as Central and South America, West Africa, the Caribbean, and Mexico. It is a leafy green and, in my experience, is made into soups and can also serve as a mild laxative. Yum.
Back to the story:
For the next couple of weeks, it got all the sunshine and water it needed and THRIVED. I was so proud. I even caught a couple of butterflies checking out the budding flowers it had going on!
Unfortunately, this thriving plant began its fall to death towards the end of October when the weather began to shift. It started raining a lot, got colder, and honestly, I kept pushing off moving the pots inside and creating a greenhouse for them like my dad told me to do (sorry, Daddy).
So… this happened.
However, the story will continue. The death of my waterleaf does not spell the death of my future dream garden. In fact, those wilting stems are getting thrown into my compost to provide nutrients for the next plant because the Lion King taught me about the circle of life and how it moves us all. Though my backyard may not be much more than dead leaves and barely any grass, I have hope for the future. I see the beauty of what it is not and what it will be in due time.
