My gardening class ended on Saturday. I'm kind of sad it's over but I'm kind of happy to have my Saturdays back, too. As part of our final assignment, we had to give presentations to the class. I'd been absolutely dreading it since the very first day. I hate talking in front of people. I totally, royally hate it. It helped that we were allowed to present the plans for our own gardens though, because I pretended I was having a chat with my friends about what I was doing in my garden and that made me a little less nervous. And since I am a huge weirdo, I also made a garden workbook to help with my presentation.
I divided the workbook into five sections: Site (before and after pictures of the site along with my garden plan), Soil (soil test information and amendments), Crops (all the vegetables I'll be planting), Resources (mostly notes and handouts from class), and Ornamentals (care and maintenance requirements for all of my perennials and shrubs).
So far, my preliminary veggie garden design is four 4 ft. square beds (with paths in between) made out of 2" x 6" juniper boards placed in front of the fence next to the plum tree. I also want to build a little trellis at the entrance of the space. Something quaint and rustic, I think.
I made a crop rotation chart (inspired by one of the handouts we were given in class) to help me decide what to plant where and when. I'm not even close to being done with this part. It's a huge puzzle of plants based on family, germination periods, harvest times, and a slew of other things— things I never would have thought to consider before.
Now I just want to start planting and see what happens!
Unfortunately, my presentation was pretty lame. I talked super fast and was only up there for 4.82 seconds instead of the recommended seven minutes. And when I passed my book around, I got nothing. Zero feedback. Nothing. Everyone looked at me like, Why would one do this exactly? Maybe it wasn't the right crowd for a garden workbook. I probably could have done more to spark a conversation but my face was too red and my chest was too splotchy and I just wanted to pick up my dinner and go home.
It's alright though. I've got my workbook, a bunch of ideas, and a whole lot of motivation to get this thing started.
