I am overly neurotic, but I do know that at some point, I will be able to let the garden do what it will do.
Here's what I have planned so far...
To sow indoors starting, well, today:
- Tomato (Manitoba)
- Asparagus (Viking)
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower (Early Snowball)
- Sweet Peas (flowers, not the edible variety)
- Thyme
- Oregano
- Basil
- Sage
- Rosemary
- May look at some other herbs. Also might get chives.
To sow outdoors after May long weekend:
- Onions (2 types - yellow for storing over the winter, and a multiplier variety)
- Garlic
- Beans (2 varieties: Dwarf Green Stringless and Heirloom Contender)
- Swiss Chard (2 varieties: Discovery and Bright Lights)
- Spinach (Regal)
- Lettuce (Grand Rapids)
- Cucumber (Cool Breeze F1 Hybrid)***
- Carrots (of course!) (Heirloom Danvers-Half Long)
- Peas (Heirloom Wandos)
- Strawberries
- Wildflowers (from the paper our invitations were made out of. I saved the scraps I trimmed and wanted to plant last year, but was busy and forgot...)
*** QUESTION FOR ANYONE WHO KNOWS Does hybrid mean it may be genetically modified?
Anyway, yeah, I went out and measured where we intend to put the garden. It isn't built yet, obviously. Here's where my neurotic behaviour really kicks in:
See, I can't just measure a square or rectangle and plot rows in it. We've got a very irregular lot, with no 90 degree angles on it. So... our garden will be in irregular garden, with no 90 degree angles in it.
Literally, the dimensions are:
Left side (in picture above) 6 feet 9 inches.
Along the top 14.5 feet
The right side (sharp angle down to the bottom right) 14 feet
The long line from mid page on the left side to the lower right side is 22.5 feet.
A very irregular garden. BUT, I plan to make it work.
As you can see above, I had to make my own right angles to be able to measure the angles properly. Genius? Yeah, I thought so, too. ;)
See, the reason I didn't just make a rectangle box straight out from the 14.5 foot section is this: It wouldn't look good. Also, it would be a bigger pain to try to trim the grass in between the fence and the garden, on both sides. Weird triangle spaces of lawn would be wasted, so we figured we should just go right across.
We were planning on just making a straight line go across the yard so that the garden would come out to 7 feet from the 14.5 foot long fence, but then after measuring and looking at it in the yard, decided it might be better aesthetically to have it be parallel to the deck (even though Chris wants to rip out the deck. However, if the deck is taken out, the garden will still be parallel to the house this way.)
The black ladder looking thing is going to be nothing. A walkway in the garden so I can get where I need to go. We figured this might be easier than doing rows the other way. (Suggestions?) Please note that the sun rises on the side where it measures 14.5 feet and moves across to the 22.5 foot measured side.
The rows that I have planned are kind of this:
Forgive the extreme crappiness of this picture. I used Paint to just quickly show what I want to do. :D
As was recommended by Chair, I will be putting onions kind of all over the place, to help keep the kitties out. We have enough neighborhood cats that I KNOW this will become a problem quickly. We'll also be putting down pieces of chicken wire in between rows, to try to keep them from walking in there, and finding a place to do their business.
Soooo... We will be putting in an (approximately) 155 sq ft garden. For which, I calculated, we will be needing about 8.611111 cubic yards of dirt (topsoil).
Going to go call and find out how much that will be. (Tried to call, they are out to lunch. haha)
Guess I will hear back this afternoon about it.
Edit: They called. Minimum order for free delivery: 5 Yards. $21/yard. So... we need about 9 yards, so... $189.
Sooooo. Anyone out there think this may be a bit ambitious?
Any suggestions for planting, which plants to put next to the others? I know lettuce needs partial shade (according to the packet) so we will be sort of covering it with a mesh thing to partially block out the sun. Any idea if that will be good enough?
Do greens/lettuces do best altogether? Planning on putting the spinach, chard and lettuce together in the triangle corner, so far. But, does chard/spinach do better in full sun?
If we try to plant potatoes, can we just plant some that we've bought from the store, or do we have to overwinter them, until they sprout, like I have read somewhere before?
I have a million questions, and feel like calling to ask people would be bothersome. :S I should just look this stuff up online!
(Anyone want to come out for the weekend and help us build - read that as watch Eric and tell me what to do, I will do the work - a garden?)
<3 <3 <3
I have to say, since getting pregnant (I MEAN WITH ERIC, I AM NOT PREGNANT. lol) I have changed a lot. When I first got pregnant, I felt more feminine. I stopped caring as much what other people thought and felt like I was doing what I needed to do, when I needed to do it. I have more confidence. (I don't think that is a typical new-Mom thing...?) I am more ambitious. We've done so much to our house, inside and out, already since he was born, more than the 3 years we lived here before he was born. :D
I am eager to get things done, to build, to make it our own, even though we don't plan to stay here for more than a few more years. This house has such a great feeling in it now, and I think this garden will make it even better.
:D Happier than I've ever been. Again.
6 comments:
all terrific, just allow for learning curves with it all...
note herbs are tremendously hard to start indoors along with some of the vegies, ask Chair or Grandma which ones might be better to just buy as bedding plants...I can bring you a piece of my thyme/marjoram plant, it is huge and would be good to trim, and greek oregano. They came back well last year and I expect them again this year...will look at if I can visit or not, but Joy is talking about going your way the May long weekend....I am working that weekend. Motherhood is the greatest job in the world, isn't it.
hugs Mom
I am not going to have high expectations with the garden this year. I intend to plant, water, weed, and check fairly often for results, BUT, if nothing happens, or if plants die, I will try again next year. :D
I know that I might be planning quite a lot, and that it isn't just plant and walk away and voila, piles of vegetables! Chris plans to help out, since he loves garden fresh veggies, too.
I've had some limited success with herbs before, so I will be trying to find those in a greenhouse, unless I can get some from you. :D I might try to start my own, to keep indoors, just for the heck of it, anyway. :D
Motherhood is by far the best thing I have ever done. I thank Chris often for making me a Mom. lol I love it so much, and have a better appreciation for all the moms out there. :D
Love you!
Herbs aren't too bad to start indoors, as long as you start them early enough. It's sort of a toss up between starting your own and buying from a good garden center (esp annuals like basil, parsley, etc). The exception is dill, it's a beast! RAR!
Yeah, do what you can and learn what you can as you go. Some tips I've either found out or read or heard:
Lettuces and spinach will bolt quickly if they're in the sun for the hottest part of the day. If there's a part of the garden that will get shaded in the afternoon (on the west side of the garden, next to a fence?) put the spinach and lettuce there. Sun is at zenith here at 1pm in the summer, so the hottest hours are from 1-4 ish.
Rotate crops from year to year. Plant nutrient pigs (anything that produces a lot of fruit: tomatoes, cukes, etc) where you had beans/peas the year before. Beans/peas have symbiotic bacteria that help fix nitrogen into the soil so it'll be somewhat richer at that spot the next year. (Anything that is the product of a flower is a fruit: peppers, cukes, squash, tomatoes, beans, peas, etc.)
You can start nearly everything indoors ahead of time to try to get the most out of our limited growing season -if you want and you have the space. Cukes, lettuce, beans, peas are OK to direct sow into the soil but I start some early to get things going. Pole beans rock but they need a support because they will climb like nuts!
For the most part, seeds are good for at least 2 years so if you don't use them all, save them for next year.
You can plant any ol potato but ones sold for seed (already sprouty) will germinate faster. If you set some in a sunny window for a week before planting that will help, too.
Chard does better in full sun, as I said: spinach, lettuce do not.
Keep plant height in mind and try to keep the tall stuff to the north so it doesn't shade the rest, though a bit of shade is never a bad thing.
Mulch, if you can. This year we grabbed a neighbour's 6 bags of leaves that he'd left for the garbage guys to collect! It's not hard to find cheap/free mulch.
Cukes need a LOT of space to spread, OR a trellis to climb (they are a vine, after all).
Asparagus is semi-tender so make sure it's well protected. If you can put right next to the house, that's the best bet. I can tolerate some drought, too, but will (of course) do better with regular waterings.
Broccoli and cauliflower can wind up being seriously MUNCHED by cabbage white caterpillars (the butterflies are already out!) so monitor them as much as you can. You CAN use floating row covers but regular picking off and smushing the caterpillars works well enough, too.
If you prefer baby lettuce (like I do) plant them sparingly, then in 2 weeks, plant more, etc throughout the season so you'll have a succession of nice leaves on hand at all times.
Broccoli can grow surprisingly tall (a meter). You can snap heads off as they grow and new heads will keep forming along the stem.
YAY FOR GARDENING! :D
whew, I'm tired just reading, glad Willy does the gardening!
Cindy/Mom
Thanks for all of the information, Chair! :D
GOing to need to find a neighbour with trees to mooch some leaves from. :D
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