Welcome to the Happy Veggie Gardener Community!

Hi there! I'm Cindi, I'm the second half of the brains behind Happy Veggie Gardener! My mom, Noelia - gardening is truly her passion, and much of what I've learned, I learned from her. She's the main brains behind Happy Veggie Gardener!

We started this blog as a means to track gardening projects, knowing that these projects would help other gardeners like you with your projects. You see, my mom has been at this whole backyard gardening gig for over 30 years. And I've been at it for about 8 years. Both of us like to try new ideas every year with every new garden.

Since moving to Florida about two years ago, mom has been itching to get a new garden started down here. When she's fully retired, she can't wait to be full on playing with her garden - her retirement will be full of gardening and canning! She dreams of dedicating about a half acre to a vegetable garden and fruit trees! (For as long as I can remember, she's been trying to start an avocado seed so rest assured one of those trees WILL be avocado!)

But since the half acre garden is a HUGE project to undertake and may take a few years to be fully in commission, we decided to start a smaller version with a raised bed.

Which means we're starting a vegetable garden completely from scratch. And bringing you along this journey so that if you're in the same boat, you'll get ideas for your own garden and learn how to avoid mistakes as you navigate your own gardening journey (by the way CONGRATS! This is such a rewarding journey and we cannot wait to hear how yours is going!).

We've also got another few projects planned (testing out some new ideas) in addition to the raised bed. (And thank you Tik Tok for our raised bed idea!)

Here's a quick sketch of the raised bed:

So far, materials have been purchased for the raised bed, seeds have been purchased and sown (and sprouted!), and the 2021 vegetable garden is starting to take on life.

We'll share the plans for the raised bed, materials, how we're planning to fill it for cheap, the blend of soils, precautions we're taking to deter destructive animals, and more.

Aside from gardening being one of mom's biggest passions, our gardening has goals. I mean, the desire for a half acre sized garden doesn't come from nowhere.

We both love knowing exactly where our food is coming from. We prefer our food to have minimal to no harmful pesticides on it. We'd love to be able to say all of our vegetables, year round, came from the backyard garden and not from the store. And not to mention how incredibly rewarding it is to watch the seed become a plant, to care for the plant for months and watch fruit grow, then to be able to harvest the fruit and put it on the table.

Stay tuned, we've got so much more to share with you! We're so excited to be on this journey with you!