Garden maintenance at our primary residence concerned me a bit when we started spending most of our days at our mountain cottage about an hour and 20 minutes away. Glad to report that despite our schedule of dividing time between our two homes, our vegetable garden still produces abundantly! I also realized it’s very resilient especially if you prepare the conditions for it to continue to produce when you’re not there everyday.
We have made some the mistakes, some wins, and learned some lessons. Here are 5 vegetable garden maintenance tips I’d like to share with you and hope to inspire you to not give up! Or maybe get started!
#1 There’s never a right time so just plant your backyard vegetable garden and enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Last year at the onset of the pandemic, like a million others, I started a vegetable garden. No. I had never done that before. And no. I had no idea what I was doing. But I was so inspired by someone on YouTube. She had me believing that I could do it. So I did.
I consider myself a very busy person. All members or our household are busy people. We have work and school and lots of activities. And because I convinced myself we were so busy, I used that consistently as an excuse to not start my vegetable garden. Being busy is quite convenient.
But finally, I decided that we were going to be busy people with a vegetable garden. And my mission began. Each step I took to make it a reality was another step toward building my confidence. Because we all knew that was the bigger issue.
Dutifully I studied, researched, watched videos and learned a whole bunch of things. I had to do all that on my lunch breaks, before going to sleep and between weekend activities. Because vegetable gardening (or any type of gardening for that matter) was completely foreign to me, it took me a minute to learn some basic things. I really was starting from the very, very beginning.
Oh the dilemma of the naysayer in all of us
I kept thinking. What if I kill everything? Then my voice of reason would counter with, “But what if you succeed and can actually feed your family from your backyard grocery store?” I love when I listen to my voice of reason.
Interestingly, I actually started this process way before the pandemic and even before we bought our mountain cottage. I did not realize at the time how it would benefit us when easy access to fresh vegetables became limited for a bit. Matter of fact, I believe I was able to get all my preferred potting soil (because it was the YouTubers preferred potting soil, let’s be clear) before stores started running out.
It wasn’t like toilet paper that was impossible to find, but all of a sudden, planting a vegetable garden was a thing. And potting soil became a hot commodity. Like flour. Everyone became a gardener and baker in 2020.
Had I waited another year, we would still have been busy and owned a second home. There’s never the perfect time so just go for it!
#2 Start seeds indoors with grow lights instead of directly in the soil. This way they are portable. They can go with you from house to house.
By February, I had started with indoor planting. One whole wall of our garage glowed with warm grow lights and hopeful seedlings.
Because I didn’t know what I was doing, I followed my YouTuber gardener step by step without fail. If she turned on water, I turned on water. When she fertilized, I fertilized. She started seeds indoors, so did I. I was blissfully clueless and it felt marvelous. I was so excited for the promise of what was to come!
Then March happened. We were required to “stay home” around the middle of that month. After the initial chaos of all of us adjusting to new work and school schedules from home, I was grateful for the distraction of my potential nutritious vegetable garden. It gave me joy.
I realized I was calling myself a gardener and telling my colleagues about my new project. I spoke excitedly about grow lights and why I was using them. Of course I had to watch several YouTube videos again just to make sure I was explaining it right.
The remote work days seemed excruciatingly long. At first, I wondered why I didn’t have time to make it out to the garage to check on the seedlings even if I worked from home. I realized it was up to me to fit it in.
Carving out 10-15 minutes a day
So during some calls that were not the formal meetings, I would take my phone outside and walk around the yard and peek at the empty garden bed waiting for the seedlings to be transplanted. Then I’d finish my little tour of the house and yard in the garage to check on the little plants as they thrived under those grow lights. It was my therapy in the midst of the extended hours we were all working.
Little did I know that using grow lights to plant last spring’s vegetables would be my solution for planting the fall vegetables–out of necessity.
When we bought our mountain cottage, I made it a point to start all my seeds indoors with grow lights. I also set up grow lights in our mountain cottage garage. So when we traveled between homes, the seedlings came with me. I was able to water and care for them wherever I was until it was time to transplant them in the garden bed.
# 3 Automate everything you can. Grow lights and irrigation, for example.
Every morning at 6, the grow lights would automatically turn on. Then every night at 10, they would turn off. We had them on a timer.
When the moment came for me to transplant the seedlings into the garden bed, we made sure the irrigation was also set on a timer to turn on exactly when we wanted it to turn on. And we did all this with apps on our phone so we could control them anywhere we were.
During my lunch breaks, I made it a point to visit my newly transplanted seedlings in the garden beds we had just installed in the backyard. Meanwhile, the world seemed to be spiraling into a deep health crisis. So watching the little plants spring up before me brought hope.
This little project and newfound passion to grow our own vegetables also brought welcome reprieve from the darkness humanity was facing. And the stress of long work hours.
Everyday, I watched my baby vegetables grow. And regularly I would plant more seeds. By spring and summer, I had a beautiful vegetable garden full of salads, peas, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, corn, eggplant, melons, blueberries, strawberries, sunflowers and beautiful flower pollinators. It was glorious.
I tended to my garden when I could in one form of the other. Some days were tough and my schedule didn’t allow me the time to pay much attention to the growing vegetables. But with the irrigation being automated, the plants received water regularly. I realized at this point that the garden was more resilient than I thought.
We beautified the area with an arbor and white fence. And we were producing our own food which was the most exciting part!
#4 Share the abundance. Because with water, fertilizer, and love, your vegetable garden will flourish. And so will you.
What has this vegetable garden project provided?
Courage. I have overcome my unfounded fears of wasting time and money trying to do something I had never done before.
Confidence. The evidence of abundant delicious vegetables, fruits and vibrant flowers demonstrated to me that I don’t kill every plant entrusted to me.
Convenience. I can’t get over how we can whip up a full meal from food we picked in our backyard.
Nourishment. All the varieties of healthy edibles are a treat to our taste buds.
But most of all, abundance. We love being able to share the homegrown produce with family and friends. Because you’ll see. You’ll have enough for your family and others. Also, the inspiration you can share with others is a gift. Your family and friends may even try to start their own small vegetable container on their deck or windowsill. It’s amazing how vegetables and fruits can grow in all sorts of places!
#5 Keep it simple. No need to be extravagant. You’ll still be treated to yummy nutritious veggies!
No doubt I went overboard though with the spring seed planting last year. No doubt.
It was a lot of fun but also overwhelming. I learned that I could not sustain that level of gardening and production if I wanted this to be something that I incorporate into our routine forever. And that was the plan.
So for fall, I simplified things quite a bit and decided to plant less than half of what I planted for the spring and summer.
Then we purchased our cottage. That in itself brought its own unique joys and stressors. We enjoyed our cottage so much that we spent more time there than at our primary home. Our jobs were still remote so that gave us the possibility to be mobile as long as we had the Internet and our laptops. By this time we were well into autumn.
It was time to get organized and plan for how I was going to maintain the vegetable garden. So with a little bit of trial and error, I got a system down.
We started dedicating weekends to the upkeep of our primary home. While my husband took care of a lot of the hardscape, I took care of clearing out the garden beds. I refreshed the soil then stuck to the plan I had set out: keep it manageable.
After more research, I found that salads of all different types are pretty hardy. So I ignored the urge to plant all my fall garden seeds, kept it simple and imperfect. Oh how liberating it is to be purposefully imperfect!
I planted seeds indoors and as I mentioned earlier, transported my seedlings to the cottage and back until it was time to transplant them in the garden beds. The result was an abundant harvest this winter of different varieties of salad, kale, and mustard greens that we enjoy with many of our meals.
Planning for the spring season
As I plan for my spring garden, I will once again start my seeds indoors. This will give me the flexibility to transport the seedlings back and forth from our primary residence to our mountain cottage for as long as I can. I already have grow lights set up in both garages permanently.
We will have to ensure that our irrigation tubing is all intact and the watering system is programmed for maximum efficiency. And I will have to be diligent and systematic about my fertilization schedule. I can do this.
So far, it has been both a challenging and fun adventure maintaining two homes. It takes discipline to remain organized. But creating systems that help me stay on track has been so valuable.
Have no fear and start your vegetable garden this spring season if you haven’t already. I hope you find your system to stay organized and sane because I think you’ll enjoy the benefits the garden brings. And maybe some of these tips can help you!
Family Command Center to Stay Organized
Kitchen Tools and Equipment: Get Organized and Cook at a Furnished Cottage
Home Projects: A Convenient 5-Step Process to Planning and Prioritizing
