With so many people staying home and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the perfect time to plan out and start seeds for my 2020 vegetable garden.
The coronavirus outbreak also brought with it rising consumer demand for fruit and vegetable seeds. Seed companies could barely keep up with the demand.
I asked myself, do I really want to go through all the work of starting seeds this year, when you never know how successful the garden will be from one year to the next. Amid the stress of COVID, my goal was to cut down on my grocery bills by growing my own fruits and vegetables. I felt it would be a nice distraction from COVID crises and the sad political environment that has been a source of stress for everyone.
There was also a lot of anxiety over the food supply chain. I wanted to try to be more self-sufficient and have some control over the situation we were facing with empty grocery shelves and long food bank lines. It was very concerning to me as I'm sure it was for everyone.
According to Rutgers University professor Joel Flagler, there are certain, very stabilizing forces in gardening that can ground us when we are feeling shaky, uncertain, and terrified. It’s these predictable outcomes, predictable rhythms of the garden that are very comforting right now.
Getting my hands in the soil and planting connects me back to the earth and is a reminder of hope and new beginnings. For this gardener, watching my garden grow is very exciting.
I started my seeds indoors in seed trays until the roots and stems we strong and could be moved to individual larger pots. I began taking them outside in early spring during the day as the temperatures began to warm up so they could get acclimated outdoors until all danger of frost had passed.
During that time, I also began to prepare my garden soil by adding humus and manure and compost from vegetables and fruit scraps. I've been building this rich soil for about six years now and every year, I build up the soil and add more organic topsoil, humus manure, and compost.
We had a lot of rain this past spring, and everything had a slow start because of the lack of sunshine for several weeks. I was finally able to get my plants in the ground in the second week of May. I was very careful to space my plants well and feed them with organic plant food as well as watering them well during dry times and scorching high temperatures.
My herbs, tomatoes, peppers, yellow squash, cayenne peppers, strawberries, and fig tree thrived and gave me a bounty of consistent vegetables and fruits all summer.
Gardening during a pandemic has been very comforting and therapeutic. Also, it has provided fresh produce that reduced my grocery bill all summer. Every year I learn what worked well and what I should change for the next season. In my first few years of gardening, I learned the importance of creating healthy soil and what a difference it makes in the increased amount of vegetables and the health of the whole garden.
This year my takeaway was how beneficial it was to feed the plants every 10 days, as well as prune back some of the plants during the growing season. Pruning produced more flowering and in turn more vegetables. Below is a photo gallery of the growing progress of the garden from the spring through the summer of 2020.
Instead of using my energy towards things I have no control over, I put that energy and passion into getting my hands in the soil and growing my own food. In return, I reaped the rewards with a bounty of fresh vegetables all summer. Just another reminder for me personally to stay grateful and count my blessings! I hope I inspired you to plan and enjoy a garden of your own in 2021.
