New Gardener in the PNW

I guess I must have stumbled across this method somewhere in my web travels this winter! My husband and I have built several raised beds for veggies and flowers. I haven't read the book yet, but will be this weekend. I say stumbled on it, because I have string grids in my veggie beds and have planted in them, but don't really remember why I did it that way, lol. Guess I will find out after my reading!

This is my first real attempt at gardening. I have not done well with house plants in the past, the poor things usually get passed off to my sister who revives them and then has to make sure that I know the huge plant over there was once my pitiful little whatever, lol. I have high hopes for my veggie gardening project, and so far it is doing well; I think. Being a first timer, I really don't know what to expect, but we have already harvested lettuce and spinach several times.

Here is what I have for veggies:

4 topsy turvy planters with tomatoes in them (2 are roma's and 2 are cherry)

3' x 3' bed has sweet onion, green onion, and garlic.

3' x 5' bed has crisp head lettuce and bibb lettuce, spinach, celery, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower.

6' x 8' box has green beans, peas, corn, asparagus, bell peppers, hot peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, acorn squash, artichokes, and one miserable cabbage plant (I took the rest out because those silly white butterflies ate most of them!).

I also have a little kids plastic swimming pool full of strawberries. 3 blueberry bushes (bluecrop and legacy), wild blackberries (behind the garage), a cherry tree (not sure what kind, but they are definitely sour), and a Gravenstein (sp?) apple tree. The 2 fruit trees were seriously trimmed this year so the will not produce until next season.

The 3 flower boxes did not incorporate the square foot technique.

As most of you experienced gardeners can probably tell, lol, I started this project without doing enough research! I am learning that I don't necessarily have a good mix of plants, but live and learn

Well, enough rambling. As soon as I figure out how, I will upload some pictures, maybe add a profile pic too. I welcome any and all comments and suggestions to help me on my new gardening adventure!!

Well hello there nurzemjd! So glad you found us in the PNW forum too.

Hey, if you've already been harvesting spinach and lettuce, you're doing great! Congratulations! Can't wait to hear what you think of the book - it's a quick read. And I'm looking forward to the pictures!

Wow! you have a whole FARM already! the forum members will clamor for your pictures. Did you by chance attend the 3rd. 'Puyallup Sustainable Fair' this past weekend? it was great!

Thanks for the warm welcome!

No sadly, I didn't know about the fair until Saturday. I just found that website last week! Hopefully there will be a 4th annual fair, so I can try to budget it in for next year. I didn't have $50 to spare this past week for admission, let alone money to buy things with. I have it on the calendar for next year, though, and will check into volunteering to help!

By the way for anyone interested in the upside down planters ....
they cost $9-10 at most garden centers, but you can go to Big Lots and get them for $1.50.

Welcome to the forum. As long as you've got beds going, you are on the right track. If you make a mistake, you can fix it next year or in the fall. We all have learned from some whoppers ourselves.

That price for topsy turvy planters is a good one. I got my 2 when they first came out and they were costly. I also didn't get many tomatoes. My plants kept trying to grow "up" toward the sunlight so they were in a hooked shape and struggled. I learned later that cherry tomatoes grow better in them than indeterminates (long, vining types). If yours works for you, that's wonderful. If it doesn't, don't worry about it.

Good luck with your new garden.

nurzemjd wrote:Thanks for the warm welcome!
No sadly, I didn't know about the fair until Saturday. I just found that website last week! Hopefully there will be a 4th annual fair, so I can try to budget it in for next year. I didn't have $50 to spare this past week for admission, let alone money to buy things with. I have it on the calendar for next year, though, and will check into volunteering to help!

By the way for anyone interested in the upside down planters ....
they cost $9-10 at most garden centers, but you can go to Big Lots and get them for $1.50.

"Big Lots" where dat?
oh,
and I most definitely Volunteered, must give 4 hours; my asignment was in the Recycle station. But I was informed by a garbage-disposer that I was "clueless" ; because the sheet MotherEarthNews made, (based on Fair feedback) was that meaty bones, & plates with meatballs & cheese was to go into the COMPOST bin. Hallo! the cheat-sheet said NOT. Well, I'm not gonna argue with Fair-goers, as now-a-days you never know if some nut could shoot you over a little thing like that. So I apologized to whoever disagreed; & then promptly asked the Office to get it straigthened out for next year.
Other than that, stopped at like 60 Displays, & gained wonderful awareness that we're now trying to process... And on top of that, at the end because I stayed & helped wherever else I could, I got free organic chocolate, & mangoes was in 7th. heaven as these were one pound each, & I got 12 LOL

(Maybe I shoulda posted this in the FAIR-thread )

Little Gardener:

I don't know where exactly you are, but there are several Big Lots stores in Tacoma, one in Lacey, one in Puyallup, and one in Olympia. If you go to there website, they have a store locator button on the top right. Put in your zip or city/state and it will tell you the addy with a map.

Sad, but true everyone seems to have a different idea of what you can or cannot compost or recycle.

Good deal on your finds and loot at the fair!

I wonder if the compost barrel was destined as food for hogs? Otherwise, you did right by going to the Fair office for clarification for next year. Meatball and cheese compost, my my.

Hello again!

Lets see some pictures, I hope!!

In the beginning ....photos taken on 4/3/2013

This is the flower box we made in front of the house around the stump of an evergreen tree we had cut down. The stump is about 5' high. Eventually the plan is to put trailing plants up top, but they aren't quite ready yet.

These two are of the small 3'x3' and medium 3'x'5 boxes before planting.

By April 30th we had all of the boxes planted ....

I have two boxes like this by the front steps, they are full of native PNW wildflowers.

This pot has the trailing starts for the tree stump in the big flower box out front.

The strawberry cauldron.

The tomatoes, hanging on the clothes line pole.

The small box

The medium box

And the big box

This next set of pics was taken on May 29. Everybody is coming right along, with the exception of the cabbage in the big box, dang white butterflies!

First up, the tomatoes

The new strawberry pool.

The wildflowers

The small box

The medium box

And the big box

This final set was taken this morning.

The flower box

The wildflowers