A bit behind...

We have been slowly renovating our bathroom since New Year's day, which means the garden hasn't gotten the attention it is used to by this time of year. We have started seeds inside (most of which didn't take or aren't making it).

We used a new "greenhouse" that we got for Christmas this year that came with a heated mat. I think the actual term might be "hothouse".

On April 20, I started cucumbers, green beans, lettuce (WAY LATE), and carrots outside. I also transplanted the lavender and catnip that I brought in over the winter. I've since added a few strawberry plants and marigolds.  Only the little bed has been planted (more to come). The big bed has been tilled but that's it so far. I am thinking this year we'll be buying most of our plants.

Things are Growing

The garden has really taken off. Sadly, we are loosing one of our zucchini plants. It's either bacterial wilt or  powder mildew. We'll be pulling it out soon.

Getting Smart

Decided to start dehydrating earlier this year: Basil, Parsley, and Dill.

96 Degrees in the Shade! Water those plants!

Small Bed: This best has two variety of cucumbers, two kinds of peppers, two kind of beans, two kinds of lettuce. Lots of herbs too: Basil, Parsley, Cilantro, Dill, Pineapple sage, oregano, and cat nip. Newly planted yesterday: Strawberries!

Herbs and Lettuce taste great!  Cucumbers and Pole beans starting to pop up!

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Donated Tomatoes from Sam's dad and Annie's garden.  Really going to town!!!

The larger bed has all of our tomatoes. We also planted two zucchini plants, giving
them each much more room than last year. We also have broccoli and bell peppers in there.

Big Bed

Tomatoes!

TOMATOES!!!

March Garden Update!! - Spring is finally here! YAYYYY!!!!

Nothing like some good old fashioned manual labor to kick off SPRING!!!  WOO HOO!!  Had to hand till the small bed and part of the large bed due to carburetor issues with the tiller. 

Jill planted our broccoli and lettuce.  I decided to give the big bed a 6 inch buffer from the edge of the box in hopes to control overgrowth.

Lettuce in the small bed.  Grid all laid out and ready for herbs and cucumbers.

Worm.

Moving away from the rope method that I used last year and replaced it with recycled wire mesh from my sister.  Even though the rope worked well, the cucumbers are going to love the mesh!  I'm also going to chance not having a fence around the small bed.  The squirrels and birds did not seem to be a problem last year due to the success with feed and quenching their thirst via bird bath.  I do however still have some fence on hand.

AHHHHHHH A SNAKE!!!!!  Found this little guy by the stairs of the house and tossed him into the neighbor's yard.   I thought about throwing him in the garden but I feared that he might get chopped up.  I don't mind worms, but I can't do snakes.

A couple of hours bustin' out the old carpenter skills.  Result: 3 rows of trellis for the tomatoes!!!  Wood is recycled from my old bedroom and music room at my parent's house.  I ran out of mesh midway through but I think I'll have no problem buying some extra.

Grid and mesh on the small bed.

Herbs and Flowers

Tomatoes and Peppers

He's so handy

Our friend Wes gave us an old tiller that wasn't working. Phil set to work this evening to fix it up. He had it fired up in under two hours. What a guy!

Bed Layouts

This year we decided to plant different crops in in different beds and try to leave more space, especially around the bigger plants. We also decided to not plant some of the types of vegetables we did last year.

Phil said the smaller bed is more my  bed. It has lots of herbs, plus some vegetables (cucumbers, pole beans, jalapenos, lettuce, and carrots). I am also going to put in a few flowers. When we went and bought seeds today I grabbed some lavender which wasn't part original plan, so I'll need to figure out where that is going to go.

Small Bed (Jill's Bed)

The bigger bed will house most of the vegetables that we plan on growing. I guess this is Phil's bed (since the other one is mine). This one will have beefsteak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, onions, bush beans, and zucchini. Unlike my small bed diagram, this one does not accurately represent how many square feet we are giving to each plant. 

Big Bed (Phil's Bed)

The beefsteak tomatoes, bell and banana peppers, broccoli  will all have 4 square feet with one plant in the center. The lettuce will have 4 square feet for 4 plants. There will be a total of 32 bush beans in 6 square feet, and the same for the carrots. The zucchini will have 9 square feet per plant. 

So that is our plan. We'll see how it plays out.