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Monday, August 11, 2014

The Swimming Pool Garden Fail

This spring, I decided we needed to grow a garden. It's on my Thirty by 30 list. I thought this was as good a year as any to start working toward the goal of having fresh, organic produce growing right in my own backyard.

The only issue was...I definitely did not have the time to put together a garden bed of any sort. We barely keep the lawn mowed around here, so yard work is kind of a stretch for us. There are some trees growing in our fence that need to be decimated. The rose bush in our front yard is threatening to create a fortress that barricades the front door. So, I tried to be realistic in my gardening expectations. And I planted my vegetables in a kiddie pool.


Yes. I'm serious. I saw this idea somewhere (in a book, I think) and considered it brilliant. It was a manageable size. It could sit right outside my back door on the deck where I could monitor the awesome veggie growth. With a few holes drilled in the bottom of the pool, it was sure to drain any excess water. It seemed perfect.


And for awhile, it was. My carrots and peas and broccoli sprouted up beautifully. There were glorious bits of green reaching up to the sky. I was so pleased! Friends who came to my house said "whoa! I can't believe this stuff is growing in a pool!" And I said, I know, isn't it awesome.

Somehow, it was so awesome that I managed to fail to take ANY PHOTOS of the beautiful veggie sprouts, so you'll just have to believe me that they were there.

Then...it rained. And a couple days later, it poured. And then we had downpours for days on end. The three little holes in the bottom of my pool could not keep up. I was constantly out dumping cups full of muddy, grungy water out of the pool. My carrots were drowning. Somehow they had been caught in the valley of the pool and they were literally washed away.

I thought maybe the broccoli and peas would survive. They still looked okay. We drilled more holes in the pool and hoped for the best.


But unfortunately, this is the best we got. There are a few pathetic sprigs of life left, and a maple tree from a fly-by seed and some weeds. I did neglect my pool garden in the weeks following the epic rainfall, so it's probably at least partially my fault. I still believe this idea can work and I'll probably try it again next year. But...I'm also hoping to build a real garden bed.

Because the only thing that's still alive in my garden this year are the melons I planted in the actual ground.


Fine. Lesson learned.

2 comments:

  1. I think the pool is still a good idea. I'm sorry it all got washed away. :(

    As far as not having time for a garden bed, you should just do what you did with the melons, it's what my mom does. She just picks a spot, digs a hole, and voilĂ ! This year she actually had my dad put a bunch of stakes in the ground with some wire fencing and gradually trained her vine plants to grow up that. It looks pretty cool, and the produce is easy to pick.

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    1. I feel like I need a specific "place" for my garden to be; the melons are in a box in front of my deck that I weeded and filled with new soil. The kids will trample anything I put randomly in the yard. :\ But I'm definitely going to try harder next year!!!

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