Growing My Garden Week #2!

Will plants grown in our gardens dynamically produce the nutrients we need the same way a mother's milk is customized to the baby? According to the book Whole by a medical doctor specializing in nutrition, our bodies are like factories that dynamically process every ingredient meaning what we put in and how our bodies process it are equally important.

Meanwhile, nutrients in fruits and vegetables can vary as much as 40 times from one to another. This means while the label might say 6 mg of vitamin C in an apple which equals about 10% of our daily value, one apple might have 1 mg of vitamin C while another on the same tree may have 40 mg. The apparent cause of this is that the plants attempt to produce exactly what the person growing them needs the same as a breastfeeding mother's body automatically does the same with the baby!

This research combined with my mother in law gardening and consistent advice for me to "go outside" motivated me to start my own garden as I wrote about in my first post documenting my journey into gardening! My greater vision is to grow a significant portion of our own food as a part of living a life in this body filled with joy and health for 150+ years! Will you continue the journey with us as we see what is new this week in my garden because maybe reading this post will spark and fuel a passion for gardening?

When I said in the last post I was a complete beginner, that means I have a lot of supplies to buy to even get my garden started. After making a beginning with grow bags the previous week, I dive into all types of plant seeds at Home Depot based on what a calendar online says I can grow in Saint Petersburg, Florida!

The seeds are incredibly cheap at about $3 a package with enough to make hundreds of plants!

I prepare at home by setting up more grow bags and Home Depot buckets which I since learned are not food grade ...

The kale plant in the middle was a gift from @laurabanfield's mother and one I paid little attention to until last month!

During multiple trips to Home Depot's gardening center, I load up on organic garden soil despite having learned since that what I really need is potting soil ...

I load 10 of these into the backseat of my Toyota Corolla!

And carry them all about 50 yards at home!

All this new soil helps me add buckets with carrots, onions, and broccoli!

Madeleine loves gardening with her nana which was a big part of my motivation to start the garden because we now get to do this together!

Pretty much the same picture as above. I took a photography course and am not sure I learned anything.

The spinach plants are still alive from last week!

No dog poops in the garden thanks to this fence!

We planted broccoli in these.

Amazing how fast the gardening area is filling up!

Planted lots of kale in the black grow bags without following the instructions on the label which stated the kale needed to be further apart.

Back to Home Depot for more soil where by dumb luck or unconscious incompetence I grab the potting soil!

Well some of it was potting soil ...

Remember the white picket fence above separating part of the yard to keep the dogs out? @laurabanfield bought that for about $350 and put it together. I decided to try and build one for less ...

It seemed like a great idea until ...

I was surprised to learn how difficult it is to nail stakes in standing up and gave up on the crossbars after the first section turned out to be a royal PITA.

Here we see the task at hand and regret our choices especially when I could afford the nice fence ...

Nevertheless I pound all the stakes in and get a functional fence up.

Success! No dogs in this part of the yard and now a huge amount of space for a garden!

This fence is a good analogy for how I have built my entire business online ...

Bottom line is for under $100 it works as intended despite no experience building fences!

In the next week's gardening post, we will see the expansion of new grow bags into this side of the yard! I appreciate the huge upvotes from @hasoon, @nikolai, and @teamsteem on the last week's post which helped me pay for the supplies alongside the top comments by @nearbird, @eco-alex, and @modemser!

Thank you for joining me on this adventure and I hope what we saw here today is useful for you!

Love,
Jerry Banfield