Garden Girl

Here's my garden. Finally got the last box (when you look at pic's, it's the middle one) filled and plants planted. Plants in the last box look sad :o( They were purchased the Saturday before Mothers Day and were suppose to go in right away. Life happened then weather and it just wasn't possible until today. I'm hoping that being in the very yummy soil they will perk up and be happy little plants.

I was "suppose" to be able to plant warm crops April 7th.... more like the last week of April. Some things didn't make, some got jugged (covered with a jug, I love using simply orange/lemonade containers gave me an excuse to buy more juice that I love, they are clear, and it's easy to reach to the middle to unscrew the large tops.).



In the back corner is what's left of last years garden, parsley that is very over grown and strawberries that are slowly being transplanted to be grown cover.



Box A (closest in the top picture)



Box B (middle)



Box C (Farthest in first picture)

I haven't put up my my trellis yet. I was going to try cheating and doing something cheap but after all this hard work I just couldn't do it. So I'm planning on getting conduit and setting it up tomorrow.

~It will fill in, it will fill in, it will fill in~ Reminding my self :o)

Yes, it will fill in, just give it a couple of weeks and you will forget how sparse it looked at first.

Glad you are getting the conduit, it is a lot stronger than stakes.

Thanks for the pictures. How wide are the boards you used? I made my boxes out of 2 x 8 boards; the MM seems to have settled and I plan to mix up one more batch to top off my beds. They look like yours do right now... maybe I don't need to add more MM?

Suzy wrote:Thanks for the pictures. How wide are the boards you used? I made my boxes out of 2 x 8 boards; the MM seems to have settled and I plan to mix up one more batch to top off my beds. They look like yours do right now... maybe I don't need to add more MM?

My beds are 4x4 and 8 in tall. You only need six inches of soil; so for the first and the last I just put in enough to make it 6 in. In the middle box, although it doesn't look like it's any different in the pictures, I put enough to make it just over 7 in, it was 3 cubic feet of each. The math with all the ingredients get's annoying trying to make it perfect. I plan on doing crop rotation through fall/winter and then I will be adding more MM before I plant my spring/summer crops next year. I was kind of wondering how adding more compost after each season will affect the depth or if continued settling will take place.

Adding more compost everytime a square is harvested will help keep your depth consistant. When you pull out the old plant, some MM will stay on the roots, plus the plant will have used a lot of the nutrients from your MM, and those nutrients need to be replaced before you grow your next crop.

You don't need to add more MM, just more compost.

Update on the Garden. She's a grown!

Box A

Back row is Tomatoes, row 2 is green bell pepper, 2 herbs either large leaf parsley, parsley, or cilantro (we had a mix up with the indoor starts), and a basil that is already flowering, row 3 is red bell peppers, egg plant, eggplant and a random garlic I stuck in the ground to see what would happen, hot pepper plant (spelling, serriano), 4th/front row small watermelon, Kale, roman lettuce, jarrahdale squash (a gray pumpkin, clearly planted when I didn't know what I was doing, it will out grow my box for sure).


Box B

Back Row is my free cabbage, free tomato, free cabbage, small watermelon, 3rd row is broccoli, broccoli, tyme, broccoli, 2nd row is cabbage, Italian oregano, bell pepper, broccoli, front row is 2 sqrs sweet potatoes, Cosmic carrots (purple), bush cucumber.

Box C

Please forgive sidways photos.... didn't feel like editing today :o)
If it were facing the right way the house is the back, so back row is all Alice cucumbers (long english style) then three tomatoes, 3rd row is 1 pickling cumber and 1 Alice because only 1 pickling grew, pole beans, sugar snap peas, dragon tongue beans. 2nd row Midget melons (c antelope style), egg plant, egg plant, Free tomato (determinant). Front row: Zucchini before I found out they were push and not like cucumbers... oops, carrots, partially harvested pink radishes, Moon and Stars Watermelon I'm planning on allowing to grow out of the box... if it continues to grow it's been the same size for weeks!

Everything looks so much smaller in the pictures than it does in real life. I'm pretty proud! I'm going to do some "off the grid" planting today in the dirt next to the house. I currently have self seeded sunflowers growing, I'm going to add starts I purchased yesterday: 4 sweet corn, 1 butternut squash, 1 sweet squash, and perhaps some more sugar snap peas to complete the three sisters.

After debating on the type of composter to build from wood I broke down and just bought a black garbage can. I'll be drilling holes today and have it ready to go. Easy. I was going to start potatoes in rubbermade containers but I'm considering building a box today too.... I can't decide but I'm running out of time.

Here is the update throughout July of my boxes

July 1






Vacation!


July 6







Today:


Romeo in the background with his new football


Jarrahdale Pumpkin




My sugar snap peas on the teepee are ready to come out but my "bush" beans are vining all over the tee pee and in the peas so I guess it's hear to stay.


Finally my first broccoli! The rest are taking their dear sweet time lol.


The mess that three of my cabbage look like.


And 1 that actually looks like cabbage!


Roma tomatoes actually starting to turn red!!


My sunflowers started to open a couple days ago :o) They self seeded themselves this year!


A small melon like a cantaloupe this is a super small plant that is suppose to be trellisable but it's not growing much, two yellow flowers on it so far.


My sad little watermelon... it's actually tarting to flower but it's soo small I doubt I'll get anything. This is the largest of three. :o(


All of my peppers look so sad, this is the only pepper of four plants :o( You can tell we had a long cool spring.


I don't think I'll be getting any eggplant this year....