My First Year Summer Garden Tour #GreenThumb

Hello everyone! I hope you have been well. I have been working on my first-year garden a lot this summer during this intense heatwave. Southern California hit 100 degrees in June. I don't know where Spring came and went, but I'm glad that I was still able to learn and apply some gardening knowledge so far this year. In the video below, I invite you into my first-year garden. This is my first summer garden tour and I'm excited to share everything that's been growing. I have been growing beautiful, gigantic, sunflowers, green peppers, tomatoes, asparagus, grapevines, a cherry tree, squash, and more. 

I have learned SO much from many gardeners on Youtube and reading books and articles. I have been doing my research y'all...lol. Now that it's about a week since the first day of Fall, I have also started three varieties of peas that I show you while on the summer tour as well. I recommend following the Farmer's Almanac, entering your zip code, and it will give you its historical recommendations on when to start your seeds, plant in the ground or raised bed soil, and transplant new crops. I am very surprised by the results I have been having so I mention "thrive" quite a bit throughout the video...lol. I started off dealing with the aphids, whiteflies, and earwigs galore. That wasn't fun and it wasn't easy at first, but I learned what they all looked like and their habits of destruction and eventually figured it out, using Diatomaceous Earth and Insecticidal soap. It's never too late to start a garden and since I'm in Southern California I'm gearing up for my Fall garden and looking forward to showing you my first-year Fall garden tour for 2021. Stay tuned, thanks for watching, and happy gardening!

Recommended Resources

• Farmer's Almanac (Planting Calendar): https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-calendar
• Transplants purchased from Growjoy
• Drip Irrigation purchased from DripWorks

HARRIS Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade, 10lb with Powder Duster Included in The Bag

Bonide Products INC 912102 652 Ready-to-Use Insect Soap, Quart, 1

Setting Up Whiskey Barrels for Planting in my First Backyard Garden #Gardening

I hope all has been well. It's a couple days from Spring and I have decided to move forward with preparing my first backyard garden for planting fruits and vegetables. Although I am a novice gardener, I hope to learn a lot this year and share my ups and minimal downs (crossing my fingers) with you. To start, I decided to use whiskey barrels to plant my grape vines and blueberry plants. I learned that they like a lot of space and full sun so they are being set up first in the garden. The backyard is uneven so I will level it out as much as possible and use pavers for each whiskey barrel. In this video, I show you how I did this part of the project. I will be uploading my progress in the videos to come. I have been studying, reading, and trying various things with regards to gardening so hopefully I will have success this year and the videos help you too. If you're starting a garden this year, share your plans and ideas in the comments below. I look forward to reading all about them and if you have any tips I am all ears for those as well. Most of all, please stay safe and be well.

Andrews Seed Company Seeds Review for My First Fruit and Vegetable Garden

I recently purchased a plethora of vegetable seeds from Andrews Seed Company for my first backyard fruit and vegetable garden. I have realized over the past year that I should start living a self-sustaining lifestyle when it comes to my food. I am a vegan and normally purchase lots of fruits and vegetables, a week, from the grocery store so why not learn to grow them instead. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been learning a lot about raised beds, container gardening, and starting seeds indoors from some YouTube channels. CaliKim and Garden Answer's YouTube channels are very insightful if you're looking to get started, just to name a few. CaliKim also has a gardening book for anyone looking to start their own organic garden with no experience.

Organic Gardening for Everyone: Homegrown Vegetables Made Easy - No Experience Required!

I like supporting family-owned, small business and if you're looking for seeds, Andrews Seed Company may be a good place to purchase some. In the video below, I show you the seeds 7 day and 14-day germination. They are growing even more now in their third week. It's still chilly outdoors in Southern California, too cool for them now, so they are cozy in a lightbox staying warm. 

I used large peat pellets to start my seeds and they have been a huge success. You can find them on Amazon.  

Let me know in the comments, below, if you're growing your own fruits and vegetables and share any pointers you may have.