by Ashleigh from Florida
Gardening for our family means quality time. The excitement gardening has brought my four-year-old daughter is magical.
Hearing her shout across the yard “MOM! Come look! Mom! You MUST come see this!” are memories I will cherish deeply. I like to think of my own family like a garden, we grow stronger and flourish every day with love and care. “Love Grows where our Family Goes.”
My family and I are first year gardeners, novices you could say. We are learning new methods, and the dos and don’ts every day. Our inspiration leads from 1 pumpkin we carved for Halloween in 2022. The season came and went, and the pumpkin was tossed in an empty raised bed from the previous owner of the home. Again, time passes, and the pumpkin is withering away, but at the same time – creating new life!
Our daughter’s birthday came around late November, and we began spending more time in our backyard, only to find a plethora of pumpkin seedlings! Our green thumbs were ready to plant even MORE. We went to our local hardware store and bought all our favorite fruits, vegetables, and flowers! We use multiple methods to grow in our garden, and we are learning what works best for us.
For our raised bed we added broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, kale, spinach, green onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, and our beloved Halloween pumpkins! Sounds like a quite the mix, right? Well since we did not have much knowledge at the beginning of our journey, we did not realize how much space each individual plant would need. We overcrowded our garden and sadly our pumpkins did not flourish in these conditions. They flowered but did not fruit. The learning experience continues.
We also use cloth grow bags in our garden. We have five separate grow bags for Asparagus (did you know asparagus takes 2-3 YEARS to harvest!), Lettuce, Sun Flowers, Sweetie Tomatoes, and Everbearing Strawberries!
But, my personal favorite and most successful part of our garden was actually done in a chaotic style approach. I sowed birdhouse gourd seeds in our front yard randomly just to see what would grow and I dropped a trellis over it and left it be. Lo and behold! A beautiful birdhouse gourd is growing.
Gardening has been therapeutic for me during my post-partum recovery, and especially for my family to connect and inspire each other with our love for gardening. All you need is a seed, a few tools, and a LOT of love.
This blog was written by one of our guest bloggers, Ashleigh.
About Ashleigh. . .
My name is Ashleigh! I am a native Floridian and mother of 2 children. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, journaling, and spending time with my family in the garden or catching a beautiful Florida sunset. I am also a breastfeeding mama, exclusively for eight months!
Gardening has been an outlet for us to escape the stress of real world responsibilities and connect as a family over our love for nature, plants and animals.
WIC is special to my family, especially the amazing lactation consultants who truly go above and beyond for us breastfeeding moms. The support I have received during my breastfeeding journey with both of my babies is incredible to me. I am also very grateful for the nutritionist staff who provide me with knowledge to ensure my family is healthy and fed
I love to be a mom!
Interested in learning more? Check out a few lessons at www.wichealth.org. We have a little something for everyone. . .browse the lessons to see what might inspire you.
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