My Dollar Tree Garden: May Check-In & First Sprouts 🌱

Gardening has become addictive. That shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been following along since I seem to mention the garden in every single post lately. Maybe it’s my ADHD hyperfixating but it doesn’t help that I’ve seen real success and that keeps me going! Not to mention that future Mr. Trip Side is 110% on board and has been working on the yard right alongside me. He feels it deeply in his bones that food takes forever to grow, because it does! We’re working on patience together, especially with the strawberries. 🍓

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Dollar Tree Veggie Seeds

I have great news and not so great news.

The great news first: we saw a lot of success with our seed starters! We were able to grow roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, and our lone watermelon is still holding on strong! 🍉

The not so great news: they seem to have stunted or stopped growing when I started taking them outside to temper. I had one zucchini seed sprout in the raised bed and I was so excited until I went out to check on it yesterday and found it had been eaten by either the slug I found nearby or beetles. 🪲

To add insult to injury, I did a ton of research and discovered that it’s actually for the best that things shifted around because you’re not supposed to plant zucchini and cucumbers in the same bed. They’re essentially cousins, will battle each other for ground, and attract the same pests. If one gets an infestation, they all get it. Womp womp.

So after pulling a few books and checking multiple sites, I went out and bought radish seeds, which are supposed to help deter bugs, and marigolds for the same reason.

The good news is that I started seedlings for zucchini and cucumber inside when I noticed they weren’t sprouting after two weeks. My biggest challenge now is deciding what goes in the raised bed and what goes directly in the ground. 😬

Dollar Tree Pollinator Seeds

Unfortunately I think I got a little too excited and planted these too close to the last frost because only larkspur popped up in the front yard (warning: turns out is poisonous to animals!). The silver lining? Morning glory never appeared and I found out later that it is wildly invasive. So we won and lost on that one simultaneously.

I did have great success with bulbs though! I bought two bags of Pink Gladiolus, four bulbs each, and every single one has sprouted. I’ve even had to relocate them and they are absolutely thriving. I wish I had bought six more to fill the whole front space. They look a little lonely right now without much around them but now I know to grab eight bags next year!

The one I’m most bummed about is the echinacea. I had really high hopes. I ended up going out and buying two starters yesterday in hopes of attracting more pollinators, and was able to split them into almost five plants total, which felt like a win. I’ll definitely try again in early June to see if the timing helps.

The Starters

These are absolutely KILLING it! We’ve officially had our first, second, and third harvest of the season from both varieties of lettuce and it has been so much fun going out for fresh cuttings for salads and lettuce wrap tacos. I cannot fully explain it but we have genuinely taken fresh food for granted our whole lives. Ad comments every single time on how much better it tastes and is slowly being convinced we need an entire raised bed dedicated to just lettuce. 😄

Yesterday, for the very first time, we grew enough to give some to our neighbors. I almost cried. That is the whole reason I wanted to start growing our own food. To build community and give fresh, organic, clean produce to the people around us. It has been so deeply fulfilling.

The strawberries are finally coming in strong. The June bearing ones are full of flowers and waiting to be pollinated. I bought a dwarf Korean lilac bush that has been bringing in the bees beautifully and smells absolutely incredible. I am desperate to buy another one just to fill the whole garden with its scent.

Last but certainly not least, the Moroccan mint is thriving. I have gotten multiple cuttings and started drying them for homemade tea. They double after each cutting so it should turn into a lovely big harvest by the end of the season. 🌿 I love the idea of gifting dried mint packs for the holidays.

We bought a dehydrator last summer and it’s working amazing!

All in all my darling friends, I am having an absolute blast with every little A/B test this garden throws at me. Next up is getting that last bed filled and actually blooming. Wish me luck!

Are you growing anything this season? I would especially love to know if you’re also using Dollar Tree seeds and whether you’ve had any success. Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for letting me nerd out. 💋

xoxo,