photo credit: Fool-On-The-Hill
Self Help Development Lessons
If you have been following my blog this summer, then you know that I decided to set up a vegetable garden for the very first time in my life this season. There were definitely some self help development lessons I learned from this experience. Well, the garden which I set up in planters out in the back outdoor deck is coming to an end for the season as the temperatures are starting to get chilly here in Canada.
If you missed the video episode of Motivational WebTV where I showed my viewers my vegetable garden during my first harvest, check it out at Never Too Late To Learn New Skills. It showed my garden at full bloom.
I planted four different types of vegetables; carrots, beans, lettuce and some type of Asian cabbage. I was able to harvest quantities of each of these vegetables for my personal consumption this season and I must say that it was a real pleasure to taste produce so fresh.
Lessons Learned From My First Garden
Since this was my first attempt at gardening, there were things I could have done better so I’ll share the lessons learned.
1) I started planting seeds in late May. Next season, I’ll start earlier in April to get a longer season in as I think I could have gotten more yield from the garden.
2) Lettuce requires shade during strong sunlight and heatwave days.
3) Each container requires drainage. Two of my containers I used did not have holes in the bottom so they flooded each time it rained. This may have prevented optimal growth for some of my carrots.
4) Remove weeds quickly. I didn’t know that soil contained weed seeds. Weeds left in too long take away nutrition from the other plants.
5) Space out seeds more, especially carrots and lettuce that have small seeds. This will prevent overcrowding.
6) Consider adding in a supplement next season to see if it produces larger plants.
Self Help Development Realized
Since I still have supplies of three of these vegetables left, I will replant these same vegetables next year. The carrots were a bit disappointing since they ended up being so small with most of them being smaller than the tip of my finger. Maybe if I gave them more time to grow, I would get a better crop next year.
The lettuce and cabbage are quite sensitive to the weeds. Many of the initial seedlings failed on me especially during transplanting so I’ll make sure weeds are minimal next time and perhaps wait a bit longer before transplanting them. Spacing them out better initially will help.
These are all worthy self help development lessons for me as it exercises the process of continued learning for self improvement. It also teaches one to learn from any failures and not to be afraid of them.
I still have some crop left for my kitchen so the entire vegetable gardening experience turned out to be quite worthwhile and I could see that if I made just a few easy improvements next season, it would be even better.
What Self Help Development Did You Experience This Summer?
My vegetable gardening experiment was just one of the self help development activities I went through this past summer. What about you? If you had any, please feel free to share them below in the comments section.
