Spring Garden Update: Dollar Tree Seeds, Raised Beds and Big Pollinator Dreams

Hello, my lovely friends, from the garden! 🌱 This year in particular has been such a delightful little adventure for me. As many of you may know, my life has drastically changed over the last year. One big change is moving to my fiancé’s house and, you guessed it, turning it into a home we love and get to build together. 💕

A big part of that has been transforming our back and front yard into something really special, including our very first spring garden with Dollar Tree seeds, raised beds, and a whole lot of pollinator dreams. To say I have put this man to work is an understatement. I’m so thankful he thinks I’m clever and just goes along with my antics. He says he trusts my vision and when it all comes together he’s genuinely shocked every time. Whatever that dynamic is, it’s very special and it makes me feel so seen. 🥹

Anyway, let’s jump in!

Table of Contents

The Seeds

This is going to come as a shock but I grabbed almost all of my vegetable seeds from Dollar Tree. I know! Each packet is 50 cents, so three packets are $1.50. I think that’s a killer deal. Unfortunately, they don’t sell seeds on their site, so I’m linking to BackToNature. which is an amazing Etsy seed shop out of Lake Shasta, CA (check out my Mt Shasta post here)!

I started the majority of the veggies indoors in mid-March, and we are going strong! So far we have:

I planted 3 watermelon seeds and I’m thrilled we even got one! Watermelon seeds are apparently very temperamental and the roots really don’t like to be disturbed. So much so that I planted the seeds in biodegradable containers rather than plastic ones. All I need to do now is set it directly in the ground and hope it takes off.

As for the seeds being sown directly in the dirt, those just got settled in last week and yesterday so nothing has popped up yet. I did plant 3 rows of cucumbers and a row of black beauty zucchini and another row of a different zucchini. I’m still hoping to squeeze in some kale or carrots, but we may already be out of space!

The Raised Beds

I try really hard to focus on thoughtful consumer choices and over the past several months, I’ve made a conscious effort to avoid large retailers and support local businesses whenever I can.

That said, I’m also realistic about budget, timing, and life. Since we’re not sure how long we’ll be in this home, I wanted raised beds that were affordable, easy to assemble, and simple to move if needed. After weighing my options… I caved and bought these.

They arrived in a day, took about half an hour to assemble, and they’ve allowed me to jump into gardening without a large upfront investment, which felt especially important given that I’m currently between jobs.

All in all, I’m really happy with them! I can already tell I’ll want to modify or stack them in the future if this season goes well. Down the line I’d love to invest in more permanent, higher quality beds, but for now these are practical and perfect for our first year.

I also want to mention that not everything in our garden is new! We have one other bed that was generously passed along from a friend. It’s made of wood and did need a little McGyvering to fix one side, which we did using tree branches we already had. It’s a good reminder that building a garden doesn’t have to happen all at once or perfectly.

The Starters

We went to the garden center a few weeks ago. I was really proud of myself because I had a budget and I stuck to it. Future Mr. Trip Side had never grown strawberries before, and after a bit of back and forth, we declared that they were the best berries and If we had a huge crop, none of it would go to waste. So, we walked out with 5 starters, and they’re going to be in their own raised bed. I’m also bringing 3 plants from my home from last year, and we’ll plant those in the bed as well.

Here’s what else I picked up:

Sweet Kiss Strawberries (2)
Honeoye Strawberries (2)
Shuksan Strawberries (1)
French Lettuce (6)
Green Butter Crunch Lettuce (6)
Moroccan Mint (1)
Spanish Lavender (1)
Gallery Blue (1)
Sweet Rocket (1)

The Pollinators!

I am SO excited for these to start sprouting. These I sowed directly to the ground. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I hope to turn this yard into one big glorious bed of flowers. My dream is to grow so many that I don’t know what to do with them and can gift bouquets to friends and family all summer long.

Last week I planted:

Cosmos
Marigolds
Sweet Williams
Purple Echinacea
Calendulas (fingers crossed it attracts loads of hummingbirds)
and Chamomile (for bees and tea!)

I’m waiting until the weather is consistently 70 degrees for my California Zinnias. I also have a bag full of sunflowers, but haven’t decided where those are going yet!

The Goals

Oh, my goals are also my hopes and dreams, friends. I don’t talk about this often on the blog, maybe because dreams are meant to be kept close so no one can diminish them or add their opinions. But honestly? I’ve always wanted a house like Miss Honey’s from Matilda.

I know that’s a childhood dream and probably not in my future. But in this life, my dream is to produce enough food that we’re happy, fulfilled, and then able to give to our community. I want to be the house that invites neighborhood kids over, with parent approval of course, to learn how vegetables are grown and to take home a little basket of food for their families.

With the price of food and everything that goes into it these days, I want to give my neighbors another option. I can’t fix the food system but I can help where I can. So I’m going to do my very best to try. 💕

Thanks so much for reading all about the very beginning of our garden journey! I cannot wait to update you every single month. This is going to be one of my favorite ongoing experiments on the blog yet!