Hello Everyone,
Today is day nine of my first outdoor garden ever. That's not to say I haven't had my hands in gardens all throughout my life at different times, but I've never got around to actually starting my own garden outdoors, despite having opportunities to in the past.
This will be my May Garden Journal Challenge Entry. If you're a gardener who is interested in participating, check out the link above!
The garden is coming along pretty good at day nine. I watered yesterday and don't see any issues today.
One thing that is noticeable is that there are some invasive shoots coming out of the ground. These things are super strongly rooted in this yard and I think it will be a fight all year long to get rid of them. I'm not sure what they are but they grow fast and big and have hollow stalks.
With this garden I'm keeping my expectations realistic. I have a good idea of what some of the challenges will be along the way, but I'm sure I will run into some issues that I might not solve. It's all part of the process and I'm ok with making mistakes to learn.
It's pretty wild that I've been growing plants and have been blogging about it for a while but have always grown plants indoors for the most part, with the exception of some potted plants going outside during warmer months.
For me gardening was always something I liked and found fascinating, but later in life became an integral part of my attempt to save my own life.
Prior to becoming a cannabis cultivator, I was a fall down hopelessly addicted drunk who was also cross addicted to hard drugs, and narrowly escaped death more times than I can accurately remember at this point.
Blogging on Hive gave me something new to be addicted to and was also later to be an integral conjunctive piece to my cultivation journey.
It took me a while to get the basic stuff down with cannabis. I think my biggest mistake the first couple of years I was growing was overlooking the importance of proper pH.
Now my cannabis plants are healthier as a result of learning from my mistakes.
I still have a long ways to go with what I need to learn, because I wish to contribute to the research and development of cannabis as a medicinal plant, and this requires a scientific depth of comprehension to achieve.
"What do you do to be independent from supermarkets and big growers? What do you grow 'just in case' we have a food shortage, or even a medicine shortage? What do you grow that keeps you out of the supermarkets? And if you haven't got this far yet - what do you TRY to do, or what dreams do you have of 'preparing' for self sufficiency?"
I've been prepping these peppers!
But this isn't going to sustain me if the grid goes down.
My answer to this is that I've been learning how to grow plants that are a food source, but I've not reached a self sustainable point where I don't need to rely on supermarkets.
It is a goal in the future that I will one day be able to sustain myself without the need to buy food, or only have to buy stocks of staple items that can be stored for long periods of time.
If I never reach that point, at least I'll know I gave it my best and had a lot of fun growing different types of plants too, some that are just ornamental like these variegated Pink Hearts (ceropegia woodii)
Between food farming and medicinal herbs, I think I have a stronger liking to the medicinal herbs, so I'll likely end up putting heavier focus on achieving success with medicines over foods, but I'm still working towards producing foods too.
If I had to choose my favorite plants to grow at this time in my life, it's the cannabis and aloe. I bear the strongest connection with these plants.
Cannabis because I used it as a replacement substance to abstain from drugs that were killing me, and was successful, so to this plant I feel I owe my life, and I always grow with the utmost care and love possible.
Aloe was a rescue project for me once upon a time. I was working in a greenhouse in a rehab program under the supervision of a lovely gardener who even had the last name Gardener. She was going to dispose of some root rotted aloes, but my love for the plants kicked in and I just wasn't having it.. After some back and forth pleading with her she decided to let me try to save them, and I not only succeeded but created an entire thriving aloe farm. Now the aloes grow vigorously for me and give me babies like crazy.
I believe this is just the beginning of my garden journey, and I can't wait to see what the future has in store.
Thank you 
I enjoyed participating and I feel honored to be a part of the Hive Garden community!
What do you all think of my garden journey?
I'd love to read your thoughts in the comment section!
Thank you for stopping by!
Have a great day! -
