Growing My First Garden in Longview, WA

Similar to how Paul Wheaton has project labor and nest labor, there is a similar division of time with my internship in Longview, WA, where I am doing some gardening and renovating. Growing my own garden falls under nest labor (aka my own time), so, I have been mostly working on this early morning, late evening, and on the weekends. I got my starts and seeds from Eric's mom, and I'm really grateful for her!

These are some of the things I have planted. At the stakes, there are tomato plants.


These are some tiny sprouted jalapenos I planted into the ground.


I also planted some peppers.


Here's a close up of one of the tomato plants!


And these are more started plants that I have yet to get into the ground!


I also directly sowed a few varieties of squash and peas, because I like squash and would love for eating but also want it as ground cover, too! I'm hoping the direct seeded squash and peas do awesome!

This morning I planted some, I think, kale.


And then, I planted some onions!


This is what one section currently looks like of my garden!


At the moment, I think I will be happy if anything grows and bears fruit! Because it's pretty important that something becomes a harvest!

Today, I expanded the area for my garden a bit more. I chop and dropped another area, and I discovered a mint patch, which I spared, so that I can munch on a lot! I love mint!


In that area that I cleared today, I pretty much did a Sepp Holzer approach of "seeds, you're on your own!" I tossed a mix of different lettuce varieties there and a variety of peas, beans, and squash!


Then, in one of the soil piles around the pond, I sowed it full of a variety of seeds- lettuces, squashes, beans, and peas. I also added some onion and kale starts as well.

The tomato plants in my garden seem to be doing well!



And I think some of the seeds I directly sowed are starting to germinate!

I took a peak at the little tiny simple mound of soil around a tree (located by the upper pond and above my first hugelkultur bed) that I had planted with direct seeds and some starts. It looks like some things are starting to grow there!





This will hopefully be a survival test and bootcamp for the plants that morphs into landrace gardening, because I do not plan to water this little mound at all or provide any help. I have been told I gotta water them or they will die, but I'm going to see what happens anyways.

And these are some pictures from my actual garden.

Some of my direct seeded plants are coming up!!!







And my tomato plants seem to be doing well!

I think my garden is doing okay. I'm happy to see the volunteer mint growing up and around. I love the taste and smell of it!