Big (Green) Deal: Garden Progress with Miracle-Gro Organic Choice

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Organic Choice for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine. A few weeks ago, I received a very exciting little package in the mail:

My Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Potting Soil and Plant Food! Butch and I set to work starting our seeds…But first, let’s take a look back…. This will be our 4th growing season at the Five Birch Perch, and we sure have come a long way! The first year (2011), we used regular, run-of-the-mill potting soil and set up our shelves in front of the the back door for natural light.

The problem was that that back area of the house is a little chilly, and the natural light is only coming in that one window…not ideal! So as soon as we could, we moved the plants outside to “harden off:”

And in the meantime, our garden was tilled and fenced in to protect it from the marauding packs of deer that roam freely (eating out of my birdfeeders):

It didn’t hurt that the area where the garden was set up was a cow-pasture back in the day, and had never been used as a garden before. Needless to say, the first year was PLENTIFUL:

The following year, we added some grow-lights (and rope-lighting-as-heat) to our seed starting setup:

And the bounty was good once again! We also expanded the garden and added a couple raised beds to the new section, due to the extra rockysoil:

But we did notice the seedlings weren’t as strong as they could be, so last year, we started using organic potting soil (and lowered the grow-lights to discourage leggy plants):

But something went wrong along the way…we suspect the problem was either the slow, extremely damp spring, combined with our rocky soil that performed like it was depleted, despite our addition of compost. So our “battle plan” for this year was to cover the entire garden with raised beds (for maximum control over the soil content) and to add an actual heating pad to our seed-starting setup. What we were NOT going to change was our use of organic soil, which is where Miracle-Gro Organic Choice comes in! We started our seeds, and within a week, the little seedlings had already started popping up:

And now, only a couple weeks later…

Incredible! Obviously, we have a ways to go before harvesting anything edible, and creating delicious meals with the bounty…so in the meantime, I’ll just have to visit Miracle-Gro Learn And Grow for some tips and inspiration! What are YOUR favorite recipes to make when using organic gowing products?