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When I started working here about 2 months ago, I informed my parents about my new job. While my mother didn’t really get what I was doing, her take away was I worked for a company that did lawn and gardening. She informed me that she was starting a plot at a community garden on a local military base, where the old training grounds use to be. I asked her to tell me her process in starting her plot and this is what she responded with.
Upon retirement, I decided to take up collection of plants (flowers initially) and then moved on to trying to plant a small garden in a plant box. I started by buying a rectangular box approximately 3 X 5 ft. Not knowing what grows well or not well in a planter box, I stuck with plants I knew. My initial garden included: tomatoes (small and big), kale, eggplants, okra, and bitter melon. The tomatoes and kale did and still are doing great and it’s been over a year. The okra and bitter melon are a different story. I would get one bunch and then for some reason it would die. I continued to replant new ones and after about the 3rd try I gave it up. In its place, I tried bak choi, lettuce and a few different herbs. Mint is still thriving but everything else :'(. I’m now trying strawberry, but right now it’s in a rectangular pot. Soon I will move it into my planter once I fertilize with new soil.
Next project, I am renting a garden space on a military base approximately 20 X 20 ft. Now that was a job that I didn’t realize would be that tough but I was proven wrong real quickly. The “garden” spot was covered with grass. “Fortunately” for me, this was the cleanest spot I could get. The others available had weeds that were at least 3-4 feet high.
The spot next to mine belonged to another individual. She was nice enough to have her son continue to mow the grass once a month. Next step we had to water down the grass several days to make it nice and soggy or soft. After that, it took us at least 2-3 days to use a hoe to break up the ground in various areas.
With the use of a friend’s small tiller, we, or should I say my husband, spent two days of approximately 5 hours tilling the area to dig up the grass which was basically top grass. After that was completed, we had to use the bigger tiller (provided by the garden group) to till deeper into the dirt. This process was again a couple days work of approximately 4 hours. While he tilled, I was raking the grass and pulling roots that were deeper in the ground. After that, we had to pick up all those grass and branches, load them into the wheelbarrow and dump them in a specific area which was not that close to our section. All in all it was about 6 trips back and forth.
After this portion of tilling, we then had to buy bags of fertilizers and soil. Mix them up in the wheelbarrow, and spread them around the garden. We did not have a spreader at that time (of which I have since purchased from a yard sale), so that process was done with a shovel — mostly by Mr. Glover, as he said I was too slow. Again, the tilling process had to be done. This was done in about 3 hours in one day.
Next we were told to wait a week before we started planting. We were too excited, so we only waited about 4 days before we began the planting process. This is what I currently have in my garden. I used small trees rather than seeds but I will be planting string beans with seeds which I will start at home first. My garden includes: eggplants, beets, okra, kale and manoa lettuce. This is on the main section of the garden in 3 rows. Towards the edges of the garden close to the gates, I have 3 hot pepper trees, a squash tree, 3 papaya trees, and dragon fruit. I will finish the other rows once I figure out what else to plant. Bitter melon will be planted also next to the fence area.
It’s been a long hard couple of weeks getting the ground ready for actual planting with lots and lots of sweat and manual labor, but watching the trees grow is so rewarding. Let’s hope it actually bears the fruits of our hard labor.
“Till” next time, happy gardening.
-Elaine G
The motivation from see the work from my mom and dad has really inspired me to get my own little garden kick started. Glad to see that my parents are doing something they love and enjoy. I will check in on them in a couple of weeks to see how the garden is doing. Love you mum and dad. Have you found any difficulty in starting your own garden? Do you have relatives too that also have their own plot? Please share your stories with us down below.
