More Pictures

More from yesterday's photo fest:

turnips

We aren't sure what this is.  We planted artichokes in this bed and we've never grown them before.  This doesn't look like what artichoke plants look like on line, so it may just be a weed!  I will have to investigate and find out what it is.

Or deck tomatoes are really growing!  And we already have some baby cherry tomatoes!



Working in the Garden

Today was a day of pruning and watering.  We pruned back the tomatoes, helped the fledgling snap peas and pole beans get their runners on the trellis and watered everything.

bush beans, corn and squash



squash

turnips

eggplant and zucchini

spinach

pole beans

snap peas



Coming Along

The garden is growing nicely.  We still need to get some more mulch/wood chips to go down on the walkways in the top level of the garden.

The cold snap was a bit worrisome, but no frost, so I think we are good!  The weather is so strange this year!  We had April weather in March and are now having March weather in April!

This is from 4-21-12:

The bush beans are doing really well - they are the plants in the right front boxes.  The snap peas, which you really can't see well in this picture (back upper left) are also doing extremely well.

I hope to get out and get some pictures of each box to show just how well they are doing. 

Our deck tomatoes have also grown a bunch and I will get some pictures of those and do a "before" and progress pictures of those too!

Planting

We planted a lot from seed and a few things we bought as plants. 

We soak the seeds before planting them - no more than four hours:

The kids help to plant the crops, then water them in. 

Sugar Snap peas - 3-24-12

Watering in the zucchini 3-24-12:

Planting tomatoes - 3-28-12:

Planting bush beans - 3:30-12:

We had everything planted by 3-30-12 this year. We left two boxes open to do some more corn later as we want the crops to be staggered so we aren't inundated with corn all at one time.

This is the fun part of the gardening - the kids love to help, everything is pretty and neat and it's not so darn hot outside you feel worn out just standing there. 

It's full of promise! 

Making Ready

It took a lot to get the garden ready this year.  It had been years since we had built our boxes so it was time to rebuild some of them that had degraded and to refill most of the boxes from scratch with new dirt.  Plus we added a bunch of boxes this year to increase our garden.

Here is what it looked like to start with:

Next, we began to organize our space:

Then, filling in the dirt and covering the walk-ways:

The dog helped, of course!

The Secret of Soil

This type of gardening is called "square foot" gardening.

I have to recommend a book that started us off on this way of gardening years ago.  It is The Square Foot Gardening Book by Mel Bartholomew.  Awesome book!

At any rate, I truly believe that the secret is in the soil.  We mix 3 parts organic compost blend with 1 part vermiculite and 1 part peat moss.  I believe the recommended compost is for three different blends, but we use two, and it turns out fine.  The peat moss has organic properties and helps hold in the water so that the garden does not require as much watering.  The vermiculite helps loosen the soil and keep it aerated.  Once you have it mixed, it is almost as good a quality as potting soil.

To maintain the soil, every year you add in about 1-2 scoops of compost per square foot to replace the nutrients and make it rich.  It is truly divine.

Another tip that is important is that when you build your boxes, the key is to make sure it is UNTREATED wood.  The preservatives in the treated wood can leech into the soil, which is a bad thing.

The first year you do this, it is a big undertaking.  You have to build the boxes, mix the soil (enough for all the boxes you built!) and haul it all to where it needs to be placed.  Not a quick or easy job.  But well worth it.

Box Gardening.

The first thing you need to know about our garden style is our boxes.

We make the boxes ourselves, though I believe Home Depot also has "kits" that will build a pretty box (though how long it will last, I don't know).  See: Home Depot - raised garden bed kit.  Same concept here, except ours are made for function and durability rather than curb appeal.

The size of the boxes makes it easy to reach all parts of the bed from any side.  This makes for easier care of the plants.

This is what our garden looks like this year:

See how we have the boxes?  We put down garden fabric in between and covered the walk-ways with mulch to keep the weeds out from in between.

I'll post more tomorrow!

Welcome.

Welcome to my garden blog!

Together, we'll be playing in the dirt, making mud pies and all sorts of other garden recipes! 

We have changed our gardening style and it has been such a success that I wanted to share it with everyone! 

Our old style was what I grew up with:  a big plot of ground that you hoed, weeded and tried to grow vegetables in.  It was fun and produced some veggies, but was never very successful.

Our new style involves small 4'x4' plots filled with a mixture of sterile dirts (I'll talk more about that later) that are placed a good walk-way worth apart.  The format makes for easy planting, tending and harvesting.  I'm telling you, this is the way your garden should grow!  My hubby says this form of garden has a name - it is called square foot gardening.

I will tell you about this year's garden, but will also discuss past years with pictures and whatnot.

I can't wait to share it all with you!

So ... how does YOUR garden grow?