Edibles

My first raised bed had three zucchini plants in it. Three. By August I was leaving zucchini on neighbors’ porches like a criminal.

My first blueberry bush went into regular potting soil, because soil is soil, right? It spent two years producing roughly nine berries and leaves the color of a highlighter, and then I finally read about pH. The second bush, planted…

My first tray of pepper seeds sat on a windowsill for three weeks and produced exactly nothing. I blamed the seeds, bought new ones, and got nothing again.

My first vertical squash attempt was a beautiful failure. Perfect trellis, wrong plant. I’d bought a bush variety by accident and spent three months watching it not climb the frame I’d built for it.

I started saving eggshells because someone on the internet told me they’d fix my tomatoes. Tossed a handful of crushed shells around the base, waited, and nothing happened. The blossom end rot came anyway.

I killed two full batches of tomato seedlings before I figured this out. The first time I overwatered them until they rotted. The second time I moved them outside too early and they fried in one afternoon.