I put in a brand new garden last year. Virgin topsoil. The old one in the back bordered the farm field that used to be there. 2004 Parade of Homes took its place. Yecchhh!
So I put in a roughly 20 x 30 foot garden in the front yard. With all the new McMansions around here I wanted to retain some rural flavor...and to heck with what the new McMansion owners think.
Enlarging this year to add more corn. Had 3 x 20 ft. rows and want 5 or 6. This year I'll stagger the planting weekly so I have fresh sweet corn every week for a couple of months!
Overdid the zucchini last year, will cut way back. More butternut and acorn squash. Cukes did well, will just thin them earlier.
Will repeat exactly the green beans, sweet peas, radishes, onions and beets. A couple more green pepper plants, though we still have some in the freezer. The wife wants a few more carrots, doc. The spinach and lettuce were fantastic, and I'd like more of those. We had fresh salads for months.
Our one big disappointment was potatoes, only because we didn't give them enough room...they got crowded by the zucchini (sp?).
Got to do a more with pumpkins! We planted 'Prizewinner'. Only got three but they were about 70, 80 and 150 pounders!
The wife says just two jalepeno plants, half of last year because we got sooooo many. I'm planting four again; can't count on such bounty from a few plants all the time.
So, basically more room for corn, potatoes, and pumpkins. So if I make the garden 4 feet wider and 4 feet longer, 24 x 34 we get 816 square feet, a full 216 square feet - or one third - larger than the 600 square feet we have. Should be plenty.
Only damage last year was a few ears of corn the deer got, and a few some snail-like slug got. Two flats of geraniums made a nice border on the long, 30 ft side toward the house. They say they help protect from rabits and we were lucky that way despite lots of bunnies in the neighborhood. Will do that again.
It was a little tough to garden without stopping to talk to passersby, on foot or in their car. They'd stop to ask if I minded midnite picking. I told them no, if they didn't mind midnite target shooting.
The wife has a separate patch in back and a couple of containers for herbs. I'd love to splurge on a strawberry hill elsewhere in the yard. Wife doesn't. She picks them at a farm every year.
I got about a hundred trees planted last year, and about a hundred shrubs. Maybe 80 trees and only 20 shrubs made it. Now lets see if the catalog nursery honors their guarantee. Hardly any of the ground cover made it. Got delivered on a 95 degree day and was mostly dead when it got here. Keeping my fingers crossed that they'll replace it like they said they would.
Your suggestions welcome. Good luck with your gardens everyone! Enjoy the Spring/Summer dreams ~ may they keep you warm.
I planted one tomato plant in a pot, this year. I think I still have time to plant another one or two. Next year, I hope to have a garden in a box.
Peppers, onions, more tomatos, and some beans....maybe mre, depends on the box capicity.
Just one plant for this year, though...grape tomatos. Good fruit for a salad or sauce.
This year I'm scaling back a little. Not enough time to tend a large garden. Tomato's and Watermellons will probably be the only thing I plant along with a little sweet corn. That's all I need (except for beer) for my summer cookouts.
I purchased some seeds thru Burpee. I got the King size sun flowers and I want to have them line my hill by the road.
I also picked up some calidascope carrots, Steak tomatoes, yellow squash, lettuce, colarabi, and then more flower seeds.
Carol
I'm planning on some Green Bell Peppers, along with some red. They cost over a buck in the grocery store. Several tomato plants, of various types, for sauce.Carrots, Onions, garlic. Of course MUSHROOMS.
I'll be adding a food dehydrator to my inventory of small household appliances. I'll can as much of the tomato sauce as I'm able to.
To be honest, I hate gardening or most outdoor work because of allergies, but love the thought of having a garden and enjoy visiting and viewing public gardens.
I also make a habit of ordering seed catalogs just to "have a look" and many of those
come with ideas for garden design in them. Just a thought if you're looking for some inspiration.
I also have a subscription to Garden Design magazine (highly recommended!).
Garden Design is a lifestyle magazine designed for the upscale, design-conscious reader who is passionate about gardening and landscape design. Regular columns cover unusual plants, art and ornaments, tools and maintenance, landscape and lighting, water gardens, sunrooms, and outdoor furniture. The magazine also contains photo layouts of spectacular gardens, how-to articles, design resources, a buyer's guide, gardening tips, and information about events and garden shows.
Garden Design can also be ordered thru this theBubbler Amazon link:
I actually forgot to mention that even tho I can't work outdoors (apartment living and allergies), I have been looking for a good sale price on an AeroGarden indoor hydroponics system. Amazon currently sells the AeroGarden Pro 100 with the Gourmet Herb seed kit for about $149. That's tempting but the two drawbacks are the seed pods and growing lights are proprietary. I could also go home-made as I'll show..
I don't plant a veggie garden, but I have my flower gardens. I like flowers that are different and make people stop to take a second look. I've tried a number of different kinds and some do well while others sure don't look like the pictures in the catalogs. One annual I've done the last few years gets some strange looks from people passing by. It's an elephant head amaranth and they look like elephants. I've also planted the amaranth called love lies bleeding, which has dangling tassel-like flower.
I've done the big castor bean plants. I love the huge leaves on them. They look so tropical. They don't get much of a flower on them, but the leaves make up for that. Looks great with other plants, too.
I've done different gourds a few times because I wanted to dry them and paint them up. I did the snake gourds one year and some were 4 feet long. They were so funny looking, but I didn't have luck with drying them. I tried another gourd the next year and no luck either. They just don't dry properly.
We'll be gardening around here, if this darn weather ever behaves. Years ago when we lived in the city, I watched a thing on PBS called the square foot gardener. I think the guys name was Mel Barthalomew, anyway he showed how to plant enough food & flowers in a 4 Ft X 8 Ft area to feed a family of four veggies for the whole growing season. I watched that darn show religiously, and by golly I fed two families of four for several years, in a 4X8 plot. I'll never forget how thankful the neighbors were to get the extra veggies. I might start that again this year.
Square Foot Gardening (SFG) is a great way to convert that boring suburbia grass lawn into a sustainable produce isle. Don't have a lawn? That's cool- SFG can be done practically anywhere. Mel was kind enough to send me this DVD which gives a quick intro into SFG. This method is great for the absolute beginner who might be a little overwhelmed by starting that first organic garden.
Hopefully I can get to the garden center and get some nice Patio Tomato Plants this week. I like walking out onto our deck and picking tomatoes off the plants.
Believe it or not, it's starting to feel like that time to start thinking about our gardens again! I'm sure we will get a bit more snow this year but right now it feels like Spring and the weather is calling for 50 degrees.
So, just wondering if anyone is thinking about their plans for Spring gardens?
Haven't even thought about it. I'll have to wait and see what perennials died over the winter and go dig out my list I make every fall of the changes I want to make. I do it in the fall otherwise I forget what plant is where by spring. I know I won't be doing anything major since it's not in the budget this year. I was hoping to get my front flowerbed expanded and change the curve around the bushes to make mowing easier and to make it look better visually.
I have been contemplating putting in an actual vegetable garden this year. There really isn't room in my yard for one but the airport owns the empty lot next to us that they allow anyone to use as long as we keep it mowed. In previous years, two of my neighbors have used it for a garden but last year one didn't bother. So if he doesn't use it again this year then I might plant some tomatoes, green beans and maybe some sweet corn.
I use to plan a garden out but I am more into container gardens now. Last year we put tomato plants down the one side of the garage in containers. When they got done for the summer we just pick up and move the containers to the back. Pretty easy.
I use to plan a garden out but I am more into container gardens now. Last year we put tomato plants down the one side of the garage in containers. When they got done for the summer we just pick up and move the containers to the back. Pretty easy.
I imagine weed control would be much easier. Nice having all that area where the garden was, to grow into lawn. More lawn to mow!
Well Cindy, it's been a year now that you posted thinking about your garden. Wow, and you did put in a great garden last summer.
So, what are your plans for this year?
My plans for this year? I plan on NOT planting such a big garden again! I think I learned my lesson last year. I don't want to have to try and get rid of wheel barrow loads of cucumbers again!
I think I will probably plant the same things though: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, green beans and cantaloupe, but I will cut the number of plants in half...except for maybe the tomatoes. I can always have my neighbor can the tomatoes for me, plus the salsa I made from them was awesome! I still have one container left in the freezer, but it's the mild one so it's not as good as the hot one was. The one thing I'm not looking forward to is having to keep the lawn mowed there. Since we use the empty lot owned by the airport for our garden, we have to keep the grass mowed around it. Plus, it grows so fast in a week, that I have to rake the grass up besides. I guess that's the trade off I have to make to have the fresh veggies from the garden.
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