For the past 4 years, I have been attempting to start a garden. It started with a container garden in our previous house. I did not feel like digging up the backyard, especially since we were planning to move, so I worked with containers.
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| My first container garden |
The laundry basket is petite cucumbers and the red buckets are 2 varieties of tomatoes. I started them from seeds indoors and transplanted when they were big enough. I also had railing planters on the porch that container lots of herbs: cilantro, basil, thyme, etc. The containers were a good choice since we moved that summer and it was easy to take them along.
Then next step was to create some raised garden beds. Last summer I bought some cheap wood through a yard sale page on Facebook and built the frames for the raised beds. I was determined to build them myself, so other than my husband giving advice and being an extra set of hands, I did ALL of the handy work. I mowed the grass as short as possible in the locations for the beds and laid anti-weed fabric on the grass. The beds were placed on top and I had a local guy deliver top soil. Of course, the delivery truck got stuck... but that's a separate story.
Then the beds sat for a year.
What can I say? Life gets busy.
This spring I got my act together and plotted out my garden. After measuring the width and height, I made a plot on graph paper. Then I did a little research into
companion planting and
square-foot gardening to came up with a plan.
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| The paper plan |
Then I measured, marked, and used twine to set my square foot boxes within each bed. As you can tell, I had a "
helper." My
real super-duper helper (my 7-year-old) is not pictured.
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| Raised beds divided into square foot boxes |
I intend to garden from seeds, however I did not have a greenhouse ready to go this winter. Guess what I received as a Mother's Day gift? Guess what is still in the box?
My helpers and I visited a local farm to get plants. My neighbor recommended the place and although it was a 40-minute drive, it was well worth it. I got all of the plants pictured plus two butterfly bushes and 4 rose plants for $60!!
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| The (almost) finished garden |
The items missing are kale, spinach, pumpkins, and potatoes, however I added marigolds and more lettuce than in the original plan.
Fingers-crossed that all the plants survive and grow to fruition!
UPDATE 6/25/2013:
My garden is doing tremendously well! Of the original plants 2 cucumber, 1 lettuce, 1 cauliflower and 2 marigolds did not survive. I have since added cilantro, pumpkin, and spinach, as well as replacing the 2 cucumber plants.
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| Picture of the garden with the same angle as the first picture. |
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| A picture from the opposite angle, since the tomato plants block the view. |
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| First tomatoes |
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| First zucchini |
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| First green pepper |
UPDATE 7/5/2013:
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| Picture of the garden, same angle as first picture |
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| Picture from the opposite angle, due to huge tomato plants! |
