Homegrown greenthumbs, Part I

By Ryan Seeloff

Well we did it.

Yes, the Seeloff family (of the Florida clan) finally decided to see if the gardening genes of the northern Seeloff's (of the Tidewater clan) had passed down this far south. You see, growing up in Virginia Beach with my mom and dad both working full time, I spent many weekends (and summer breaks) at my dad's parents house in Norfolk and in the spring, summer and fall many of those days were spent in and around the garden they had behind one of the apartment buildings they owned.

Some of my fondest childhood memories centered around that garden, the time spent working in it (although I tend to think that my grandfather did most of the working in it while I did most of the playing in it) and of course the eating of the results of the work put into it.

Now here I find myself thirty+ years later with two kids of my own I figured "Why not?" and this year we decided to try our luck with a small "test" garden in the empty lot next to our house. After all, why tear up all that fancy (that's sarcasm you're smelling folks) St. Augustine grass when we have 1/4 acre sitting beside us just growing weeds???

So, we began to clear a 12'x25' area in the lot and once the weeds were disposed of we threw down some bags of top soil, potting soil, and peat moss AND I actually was able to use the tiller attachment (purchased a year ago) for our weedeater to blend up our very un-fertile soil into something that plants might want to dig their roots into. Then we put down that attractive black plastic paper that keeps weeds from growing through and dumped a truckload of cypress mulch (plus four bags as the cubic yard of mulch that fit into the back of my truck didn't quite cover all of the paper) over the weed cover and enclosed the garden with some beautifully bright orange-colored plastic construction fencing.

The kids and I planted some seeds about a month ago, but on my trip to New York City the little greenhouses that we planted them in(the ones you can buy at Home Depot, Lowes or Walmart with the flat soil packets that you just add water to and watch them puff up) were left in the sun and all of the little sprouts cooked and we had to toss them out. So, we replanted with new little soil packets and soon we had green beans, lima beans, sweet corn, grape tomatoes, five kinds of hot peppers, green bell peppers, a couple kinds of watermelons, cantaloupe, zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers sprouting through and wanting to get their chance to show off in the garden. We did cheat and buy some tomato plants as well.

Now the plants are in the ground, fertilized (with organic fertilizer), protected from little critters (with organic pest control) and are being watered in the morning by dad and in the evening (just until they are a little bigger) by the kids. There are already tomatoes showing up on a couple of the larger tomato plants and we'll keep updating every couple of weeks to show how easy this gardening thing can be (at least I hope it continues to be easy). There is already talk of making a part of our backyard into another garden so that we can broaden the variety of produce we are able to grow and we are looking at planting twice a year and even staggering the dates during each season to make sure we have fresh produce year round.

The kids are even thinking about growing extra plants to sell (to support the garden) starting in the fall and they have been researching online to see what kind of unique fruit and vegetable plants they can grow to put up for sale. Ethan wants to have his own "salsa garden" with hot peppers, tomatoes, onions and cilantro growing while Amber wants lots of flowers (I keep telling her that we can't eat the flowers and I think that's why she wants to pant flowers instead of veggies).

This little project has surely taken on a life of it's own and we (Mom even gets out there once in awhile) have been spending more time outside in the evening as a family (which was another reason for starting this garden in the first place).

Check back for another update on how the plants are coming along at the end of April. Until then, keep your thumbs green!

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