• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About
    • Meet Tara
    • Contact
    • Disclosure
    • Family Photography
    • PR & Advertising
    • Privacy Policy
  • CRAFT
    • Edible Food Crafts
    • Fabric Crafts
    • Home Decor
    • Kids
    • Papercrafts
    • Party DIY
    • Printables
    • SVG Cut Files
    • Wearables
  • PARTY
    • Baby
    • Birthday
    • Christmas
    • Easter
    • Father’s Day
    • Halloween / Fall
    • Mother’s Day
    • Patriotic / Summer
    • School / Grad
    • Sports
    • St Patricks Day
    • Thanksgiving
    • Valentine’s Day
    • Wedding
  • Home
    • Basement / Garage
    • Bathroom
    • Bedroom
    • Entryway
    • Kitchen
    • Living Room
    • Office
    • Outdoors
  • LIFE
    • Blog Life
    • Favorite Products
    • Organization
    • Parenting
    • Travel
Spot of Tea Designs

Spot of Tea Designs

Our Backyard Garden | Lessons Learned in Year 1

in Home Decor & Landscaping, Outdoors

We did it! This past spring we built our first backyard vegetable garden and successful grew dozens of fruits, vegetables, and decorative fall plants in our 6 raised beds! Now that we’re almost at the end of the growing season, I’m giving a recap on some lessons learned so we don’t repeat mistakes and we can work towards another successful gardening season next year.

Backyard vegetable garden - first year lessons learned | spotofteadesigns.com

DISCLOSURE: Some of the links in this post contain affiliate links, which come at no cost to you. Know that I only promote products I personally use and stand behind. To learn more about my affiliates, please review my disclosure policy.

In case you’re new here, make sure you check out the past post about our backyard vegetable garden, including our plans, building the fence, adding a gate and the DIY garden markers I created.

Backyard vegetable garden - first year lessons learned - strawberries | spotofteadesigns.com
Backyard vegetable garden - first year lessons learned - strawberries | spotofteadesigns.com

Lesson 1: Strawberries need protection and coverage.

We put these big fence posts around the garden which kept the deer out but it also gave a good resting spot for flying birds. When resting, they noticed the bright, juicy red strawberries that were striving in our beds. I temporarily places two of these white picnic covers in place and when I found they were successful, I bought another pack to fill the rest of the bed. These four original pants blessed us with 2 growing cycles of strawberries and ended up creating more daughter plants that rooted to create more plants. I hope they come back next year!

Backyard vegetable garden - first year lessons learned - tomatoes | spotofteadesigns.com

Lesson 2: We don’t eat that many cucumber, tomatoes, and lettuce.

Yep we over planted our cucumber seeds, tomato seeds, and lettuce plants back in March when we started this garden. I was worried none would grow but in fact they all grew! We couldn’t eat the lettuce fast enough and ending up pulling a lot out as it got too bitter before we could use it. Cucumbers and tomatoes were easy to pass to friends, their parents, and fellow parents at softball so I didn’t mind that overabundance.

Backyard vegetable garden - first year lessons learned - pumpkins | spotofteadesigns.com
Backyard vegetable garden - first year lessons learned - pumpkins | spotofteadesigns.com

Lesson 3: We need a squad arch next year.

Our decorative gourds LOVED our back raised bed and this one space ended up producing over 50 mini gourds! They weren’t that heavy so when they crawled all over our fence it wasn’t that big of a problem, but next year I’d like to plan better where they should grow.

Backyard vegetable garden - first year lessons learned - carrots | spotofteadesigns.com

Lesson 4: Root vegetables need softer soil.

We did remove all the grass from our area before laying down the planters but we didn’t dig in deeper in the box for our carrots. They all came out stunted and gangly. We didn’t even try any after pulling them out! Next year I think we’ll pass on carrots.

Overall I was very proud of us of all the pampering we did in this garden and of all the things we grew. I look forward to doing it again next year and enjoying more fruits (literally) of our labor!

UPDATE

Vegetable garden updates 2023 - flower bed after | spotofteadesigns.com

See what it looks like now!

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit

Related

in Home Decor & Landscaping, Outdoors # vegetable garden

Spotofteadesigns.com Signature Design showing ways to socially follow this DIY/Parenting blogSpotofteadesigns.com Signature showing how to follow on twitter. Username: spotofteadesignSOTD2019SignatureFollow4FacebookSpotofteadesigns.com Signature showing how to follow on pinterest. Username: spotofteadesignSpotofteadesigns.com Signature showing how to follow on instagram. Username: spotofteadesignsSpotofteadesigns.com Signature

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mary Fiordimondo says

    October 16, 2021 at 5:04 pm

    You’re amazing. Seriously.

    Reply

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Meet Tara

You can probably find me in my craft room, in front of a computer or behind the camera lens.
LEARN MORE

EMAIL NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

Sign up and be the first to know about new posts filled with printables, svg cut file designs and gift ideas!

Privacy Policy

HALLOWEEN

DIY Rain Cloud Costume using Poly-Fil from @FairfieldWorld | spotofteadesigns.com
Goonies Halloween Party - Unique Dessert Table that features movie Easter Eggs | spotofteadesigns.com
Spooktacular Teacher Halloween Thank You Tag and Gift Idea | Spotofteadesigns.com
Broom Hair Don't Care Halloween T-shirt using SVG and Siser's Vernice HTV | spotofteadesigns.com
Group Halloween Costume - Prison Inmates and Prison Guards | spotofteadesigns.com
Shop the Spot of Tea Designs Amazon Store front | spotofteadesigns.com

Amazon Associates Disclosure

Tara Nehil is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.

To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

LATEST GRAMS

HEY YOU GUYS! I cannot believe I never shared this HEY YOU GUYS! I cannot believe I never shared this Goonies Halloween party on my blog! I styled it back in 2017 for a no longer around site that sold party supplies and I loved every minute of it! I love styling things where you can really dig into a theme, especially for a movie I watched so many times. 
.
Scroll through these shots to see all the hints to this nostalgic rewatch
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #halloweenparty #halloweentreats #trickortreat #desserttable #halloweendesserttable #craftersgonnacraft #partyinspo #makersgonnamake #goonies #gooniesneveversaydie
It's time to break out the @cricut and get some Ha It's time to break out the @cricut and get some Halloween crafting done! Stay tuned!
.
.
.
#spotodteadesigns #makersgonnamake #craftersgonnacraft #cricutlove #cricutmaker #cricutcrafts #halloweenwearables #vinylallthethings #halloweencrafts
DIY Rain Cloud Halloween Costume with Poly-Fil fro DIY Rain Cloud Halloween Costume with Poly-Fil from @fairfieldworld AD
.
See all the step by step photos, get a link to the exact umbrella I used, grab the free raindrop template and see how to use Poly-Fil both outside and inside this craft to make a DIY costume for a meterology lover!
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #FairfieldWorld #PolyFil #PolyfilwithJoy #diycostume #diyhalloween #diyhalloweencostume #raincloud #meterology #craftersgonnacraft #makersgonnamake
Tips to using a t-shirt ruler guide: - Press your Tips to using a t-shirt ruler guide:
- Press your shirt first to get out any wrinkles and moisture
- Lay down your tshirt ruler at the top neck
- Lightly fold your vinyl piece in half to find the center and center it on the guide
- REMOVE the guide before your place your press cloth and heat
.
Comment GUIDE if you want a link to this helpful vinyl t-shirt accessory.
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #irononvinyl #vinylallthethings #siserna #cricutmade #cricutcreated #diytshirt #craftersgonnacraft #makersgonnamake
Weekend dessert idea - create a monster brownie ma Weekend dessert idea - create a monster brownie making station where kids get to craft up their spooky dessert of their own creation!
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #halloweentreat #playwithyourfood #sugarhigh #kidactivities #desserttable #trickortreat #brownies #makersgonnamake
POV: You grew gourds in your garden all summer so POV: You grew gourds in your garden all summer so you can say you spent $0 on your front porch decor. 
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #vegetablegarden #homeground #backyardgarden #hellofall #frontporch #porchdecor #falldecor #gourds #pumpkins
Follow on Instagram
2025 © Spot of Tea Designs
made by soulmuse