In defense of my extravagance, I've been waiting for this garden 12 years. My heart is full!
Brenda, it IS a darling layout! Not planned, but quite an impressive use of space for being "thrown together.
We took a trip to the Nursery after all our hard work on Saturday, and today planted some of our starts.
We planted Onion starts and Onion sets, Red Potatoes and Kennebec Potatoes, a few Mixed Greens and some Leeks (I don't even cook with Leeks, but it's all a grand experiment and some little boys really got into it!), We bought five varieties of Tomato's, one of each. When placing all these little pots today we counted 11 Pepper plants!
ELEVEN!
That was not my doing. I like a few Bell peppers and I chose ONE tiny Jalapeno for salsa but I am not a hot pepper kind of gal. That was those boys o' mine. I hope they like to eat them as much as they enjoyed choosing them.
Katie, I'm sorry your plants froze. It's true we have a shorter season here but we are in a banana belt here in the panhandle. We have VERY long days in the Summer getting light at 4 in the morning and not fully dark until almost 11 at night. Plants LOVE IT here! They love it.
I am very eager to find out what grows, what I like, and what likes me ;-) I've heard that tomatoes shouldn't be set out until mid June, but we put ours out anyway. It's not freezing right now, but I guess we're not totally safe from that yet. We'll see. I am planning to sow a lot of seed directly into the dirt.
Suffice it to say I am full of guesses and much speculation. Hopefully you'll get to witness what this gardening thing ends up being for me.
Goal #1 this year: Salad garden. Experiment with anything that catches our fancy. Can we keep critters out? What critters want to get in? Will the plants stand the Buglet traffic? ;-)
Personally, I have high hopes of making this garden beautiful. AJ read the Square Foot Gardening book and I'm afraid I can't get too excited about gardening that way.
Too much Math and calculating involved. I'm more of a Free Spirit when it comes to gardening. I like to imagine plants "sprawling" and "spilling over..." and getting into each others spaces. I like a little reckless charm!
(Don't tell anyone, but I envision some Morning Glories and Zinnias somewhere in there too)
P.S. I earned two blisters on my hand! (Should I be excited about this?) I didn't know if I'd get to participate in the garden construction since it is a full time job just keeping the hired help happy. Alas, there's always room for another dirt-shoveler.
Next time I should wear gloves though :-)
YAY for gardening!! I hope you get a few flowers in there! This year I did a free garden. We are renting and I decided to just put in what God provided. In fact that's what we named the garden "The Lord Will Provide". So I put a few ads on freecycle and people gave me all sorts of stuff!! It's been fun. Just a few veggies, but I figure it's less sad to see the flowers go bad (if something goes wrong) than to see a yummy veggie die. I am, as you can tell, jaded by past garden failures.... Okay, enough rambling. I am excited for your garden adventure!!
ReplyDeleteYeah Linda, but you lived in Chester.
ReplyDeleteI know where you NOW reside! Is it possible to mess up a garden there?
I doubt it ;-)
AJ's cousin works at Deluxe Foods - cool grocery store!
Keep me posted on those veggies... and your Raccoon.
Love!
I was so happy to see/hear your excitment about gardening. I share that joy. I'll try and give you a few tips I have learned over the years, but you never really stop learning. I love herbs and flowers too. With your awesome fence, along the outside you could plant some berries that will grown up it. I have blackberry and rasberry, then many herbs in pots along the outside. Also rose bushes. You can do anything. With your cooler climate I can suggest brocolli which would be nice in your salad. There is a book "Gardener's Bible". It will help choose plants that are companions or grow well next to each other. I know your little buglets will be alot of help and it will be so much fun. I can't wait to see the pictures as seeds begin to grown.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we have that book on our shelf... hm. I'll pick it up if not. Really Brenda, I'd like to devote a whole garden just to berries. I'm concerned that the bears will want them enough to make it worth fencing. Raspberries, Blueberries, Strawberries... Mmmm!
ReplyDeleteBring on your tips - I'll need all the help I can get:-)
I am so excited for you. We read the Square Foot Gardening book and I too had the same reaction as you Analene. Sort of takes the fun and mystery out of it. So..........we will just experiment and have fun!
ReplyDeleteYay for gardens!! I LOVE having a high enough fence here and getting to plant things and watch them GROW and get to EAT them, instead of coming out one morning to find a few twigs poking up from the ground is all that's left of your garden.
ReplyDeleteI love to mix flowers in with my veggies :D
And berries!!! We have several blueberry plants now. They are very little and we May get a handful of berries this year :) I can eat blueberries by the gallon! Can't wait til our bushes are big.
once again that is THE cutest pic of Carolina. Too cute. Yeah for the progress you are making. I can't wait to see them all growing!
ReplyDeleteI would LOVE to have those kind of summer hours here...sounds like you should have some good luck if you can keep the critters out. I'm hoping to replant next week and maybe it will take off then! I dream of a garden that will surround my house in the avenues of Chico someday. Veggies, herbs and flowers all in one beautiful, jumbled up mess....someday:-)
ReplyDeleteI imagine there are a lot of other people that can't wait for that day too, Katie!
ReplyDeleteSarah (Diane too) Huckleberries. This Summer! Bring your "gallons" ;-D