first garden harvest

6-13-25 I've started my gardening journey this year after many months of procrastinating & researching. Gardening in an apartment felt a bit too overwhelming for me to start, so I took over some of moms backyard garden to start on my veggie garden! Despite all my research it ended up being a chaos gardening with little planning and no real expectations. Turns out I don't enjoy being outside in the sweltering heat for too long, and trying to plan a garden layout with my mom who is only interested in "filling the space" didn't help my enthusiasm. But I was able to visit and check on the garden past weekend, the plants are doing great. We planted most of them in early March.

checking in
I harvested two batches of carrots. My first harvest ever, I'm so proud . The first batch the carrots were super small and skinny. I probably overcrowded them when planting but there were also a ton of weeds that were never pulled so they stole nutrients from the soil . Me & my sister harvested the second batch which was a bit bigger. I wanted to use these to make some carrot cake, but due to their size I'll just eat them as snacks or use them for garnish

carrots
My mom has been growing banana peppers & bell peppers for 3 years now and they've always grown well .

banana peppers & bell peppers
Most of the beans we planted didn't produce any beans, but the plants survived. Not sure if it was due to the heat, water or soil issues . However one of our purple bean plants produced 2-3 beans . Unfortunately it looked like the beans spent too long in the heat and started drying out before they were harvested.

purple & green beans
First time we're trying watermelons! There were 3 growing from the same plant, but one got stuck in between the benches planks and we couldn't wiggle it. Very excited to see how these grow!

watermelon
Since I'm moving back in with my parents soon I'll be able to monitor the garden better, especially for fall planting. I want to try planting more fruit & herbs & leafy veggies. I'd love to be able to cook with the food I've grown. Overall it was nice to start gardening. I definitely need something to combat the heat & bugs for next time.

takeaway