This project has been a lot of fun, a little bit stressful, and incredibly uplifting and educational. The best part about this project is it doesn't stop with this post! I'll be continuing to plant more seeds through the summer and over the years, learning more about growing my own vegetables as I go, and coming up with new creative ways to use them!
This process began with a significant amount of research and decision making. I planted seeds in two methods: direct sown into the raised beds at specific times in early spring, and using the aerogarden to grow seedlings indoors and then transplanting them into the raised beds when the weather was warm enough.
Throughout the course of this project I grew 11 different kinds of vegetables/herbs and 7 different types of flowers, all from seed. They included:
Arugula
Baby Gem Lettuce
Basil
Bloomsdale Spinach
Cilantro
Lacinto Kale
Mexican Gherkin Cucumbers
Nasturtium
Paul Robison Tomato
Salad Savor Mix
Swiss Chard
Yellow Cherry Tomato
Cosmos
Coneflower
Bishops Children Dahlia
Zinnia Elegans Queen Red Lime
Zinnia elegans Queeny Lime Orange
Cosmos Cosmic Yellow
While I posted updates on this blog twice a week that included tidbits of the process, the behind the scenes work was significant, often happening between class, or over a quick espresso in the morning before a gig. I kept track of my research and decisions about the planting and process of planting through a spreadsheet (if you are interested in the spreadsheet, let me know! I'd be happy to share).
GROWTH MINDSET GOALS:
Committing To A Task:
all in all, I found it pretty easy to commit to the task of growing vegetables from seed. I was able to fit it in the gaps in my schedule, whether they were early in the morning, or late at night. That was one of the perks of choosing this for my project is that there were no time constraints.
Deciding when to sow the seeds outside was stressful and a difficult decision to make, but I felt confident in my choice based on all the research I did, and as you can see below, all of the salad greens did really well for the most part!
the hardest task to commit to was regularly posting on this blog lol. Because my career as a professional musician is so heavily reliant on content creation for social media and other things, and I spend a lot of hours in front of the computer for class, the idea of having to spend anymore time creating content on my computer was incredibly hard. I committed myself to two regular posts a week, and was able to stick to that throughout this project.
as gigs have started to pick up, I have also been slowly winding down the amount of research I have done regarding starting the next batch of seeds. I am planning to make a new schedule this week that will help me stay on task to get the next batch planted at the correct times. Those seeds will include watermelon and zucchini
Accepting Failure:
I did not kill anything. That was my biggest take away from this growth mindset goal. I did all the research I needed to be confident in my choices, helping me deal with the fear of failure and accepting that if something did go wrong it wasn't because I did something wrong, it was because sometimes things happen.
I learned to pivot quickly and try other seeds, like when the squirrels destroyed my lettuce, deciding to eventually plant kale in its place
when rain almost killed my tomatoes, I made the tough choice to buy a few additional varieties from somewhere else because it is too late to grow tomatoes seedlings again. But even though I had accepted that potential failure, I still persevered and took care of the tomato seedlings I had grown, and they are still alive and almost thriving again!
Finding Creativity Outside Of My Art
This project helped me reconnect with my love for cooking, and helped me identify my love for having fresh flowers around the house
both of these enable me to find creativity outside of music, and give me another way to channel my successes and failures that is not so reliant on my successes as a musician
during these challenging times being able to look out my window everyday, or take a stroll through the garden and see the vegetables that I was able to grow myself gave me such a sense of value, added a lot of life and color to the garden and the view outside my office, and these past few weeks has added creativity to my dinner menu!
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