Today I harvested my first greens! I am about to eat them up!
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Three week update
The past three weeks have flown by and along with it has come some major changes in the gnomes garden. I've got the trellises installed in all the gardens and now they are complete. I ordered one 5x30 trellis net from amazon.com and paid $13, so it was affordable. It took about 10 minutes per garden to tie them on. As for as the poles, we used electrical cinduit as recommended and they were affordable at less than $2 each, but the elbows were decidedly more expensive at $4 (I think) each.
One unfortunate occurrence is the bolting of three of my cabbage plants. We had a couple of cold nights at 46° and then a couple of very hot days at 86, so they just didn't know what to make of it. I decided to let them grow, even though they may be bitter. I decided I needed the experience.
Another thing that I have done is added more of the medium mix to my first garden because it had experienced some settling and perhaps some run-off from rain.
It seems a harvest of the greens will be forth coming in the next couple of days, along with Swiss Chard and spinach. There will be plenty of pics of those in the next update.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
New Spring Garden Journey...
This Winter seemed to never end, and although we enjoyed a rather mild one here in Maryland, it still left me dreaming big about my garden. I had plans on top of plans, a plethora of ideas and became obsessed about sketches. One day out of the blue, my husband stumbled upon something that changed it all and everything I planned was completely thrown out the window!
My husband is a meticulous planner. I don't know what it is but I think his membership by birth into the Sagittarius club has a lot to do with it! He doesn't do anything on impulse. In fact, he's often an anchor to my out of control ways and sets me back on course when I try to do something crazy. When I decided to become vegetarian, however, he pulled up the chains to that anchor and supported me full tilt! That was over a year ago and I haven't looked back. The only draw back is that supermarket vegetables have left much to be desired. We are tired of our veggies being ready for the compost bin after only two or three days so we have decided to super size our growing potential.
We have had gardens since we moved into our home over ten years ago. They were mostly just flowers and roses but there were a couple of herb gardens as well. Then about four years ago, my husband put in a couple of large raised garden beds. We've had tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, zucchini, squash and enough peppers to feed the neighborhood. It is a lot of work and we've been successful, but I wanted to grow more diverse veggies this spring and that sent my husband into planning mode. He was researching what my choices for planting would be when he stumbled upon a gardening method that seems foolproof and perfect for me. Most of all, it means he won't be doing all of the work himself!
I know, foolproof may seem a little dreamy when it comes to gardening; especially if you've been doing it for years to mixed success. Our gardens have been successful- highly so, but the short lived season makes it more of a cost than a reward, except that it is rewarding in many ways other than the actual fruit of our labors. I want something that I can keep up with and be productive for a bit longer then just the summer growing season. I also wanted to try something other than tomatoes and the other run of the mill garden staples. For this, my husband broke out his research cap and went to work. He stumbled upon a method that has me obsessed and more than anxious to try. Okay, I know, what is it exactly? Please shut up and share already! Okay, okay! I hear you...
This wondrous method full of promise, ease and bounty I speak of is Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening. It is a method that can turn a small area into a very productive and fertile space. It wraps all of this bounty into a neat, little package that (get this) requires little to no weeding and remains productive year after year! It's fully customizable and flexible. Vegetables, flowers and anything else you can grow can employ this method. Some things may need a bit of added depth, but it's not difficult to make those adjustments. The greatest aspect of this method is that in just one square foot, you can grow 1,4,9 or even 16 plants! I know it seems insane, but I promise I'm telling the truth. In fact, you can read all about it here: http://www.squarefootgardening.org . I purchased the book and am so glad I did because the information in it is great to have handy. You can see the book here http://www.amazon.com/Square-Foot-Gardening-Second-Edition/dp/1591865484/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367966937&sr=8-1&keywords=mel+bartholomew .
Mel recommends that the beginner start with one 4x4 garden, but my husband is also ambitious and likes a challenge so he built 5 (yes, I said 5) 4x4 SFG's just for my planting needs. It is a bit pricey because you are buying the wood, the growing medium and plants. In the years to follow, however, you don't need to add anything but compost and plants. In fact, you can cut the costs down to pennies per plant by starting from seed in the appropriate season. I got started a bit late to do this, so for my first season I have purchased plants from the co-op and from our local Lowe's.
The amount of gardens I have doesn't seem much, but once you factor in the amount of plants I planted, you will understand why I took three days to plant them. The amount of plants I planted was a jaw dropping 224, with 64 of them being in one garden as the mesclun lettuces and greens being planted 4 per square. The garden with my green onions, spinach and carrots had 110 due to the 16 per sq of carrots and green onions. Getting the most out of each garden does require a bit of careful planning and preparation. I'll tell you how I did mine.
I read the entire book before I started, but I did have some questions. The terminology of "companion" plants piqued my interest from the books so I wanted to make sure that I did not plant things that did not go together. There are several wonderful websites that have nifty charts that make it easy to determine what will be a good neighbor for each plant. One of these with a color chart is http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/companion-planting/ . I'm so glad that I did read about this because I seriously almost planted my cabbages next to my tomatoes (a big no-no to the experts). I planted all the cabbages with one green pepper in their own SFG to prevent any Hatfield versus McCoy vegetable wars haha!
In my extensive research, I found many helpful websites (there are many SFG sites) and there are even software and apps for planning your garden. You can find some of those here: http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/t590-garden-planning-software . I don't have a particular favorite, but that may change later as I'm able to follow my gardens more.
I was so excited when I finished planting my last plant, that I sat out near my gardens and admired them for hours. I also took pictures of every single plant and that is when the Gnome decided a blog was due. It's my hopes to post regular updates to my garden experience and share my experience, experiments, success and failures. I will try to do that here in the hopes that others trying out this method of gardening will find it and share their experiences. Now, to share some photos!
The pictures of the 4x4 gardens are all mine, my husbands gardens are our older gardens and they are 8x12. It has been raining on the East Coast since Sunday, so there was no sun when I took these. Also, the grass grew so fast, it is time to cut it again already. Next weekend we have grass to cut and I need to trim the excess weed fabric and put up my trellises!
My husband is a meticulous planner. I don't know what it is but I think his membership by birth into the Sagittarius club has a lot to do with it! He doesn't do anything on impulse. In fact, he's often an anchor to my out of control ways and sets me back on course when I try to do something crazy. When I decided to become vegetarian, however, he pulled up the chains to that anchor and supported me full tilt! That was over a year ago and I haven't looked back. The only draw back is that supermarket vegetables have left much to be desired. We are tired of our veggies being ready for the compost bin after only two or three days so we have decided to super size our growing potential.
We have had gardens since we moved into our home over ten years ago. They were mostly just flowers and roses but there were a couple of herb gardens as well. Then about four years ago, my husband put in a couple of large raised garden beds. We've had tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, zucchini, squash and enough peppers to feed the neighborhood. It is a lot of work and we've been successful, but I wanted to grow more diverse veggies this spring and that sent my husband into planning mode. He was researching what my choices for planting would be when he stumbled upon a gardening method that seems foolproof and perfect for me. Most of all, it means he won't be doing all of the work himself!
I know, foolproof may seem a little dreamy when it comes to gardening; especially if you've been doing it for years to mixed success. Our gardens have been successful- highly so, but the short lived season makes it more of a cost than a reward, except that it is rewarding in many ways other than the actual fruit of our labors. I want something that I can keep up with and be productive for a bit longer then just the summer growing season. I also wanted to try something other than tomatoes and the other run of the mill garden staples. For this, my husband broke out his research cap and went to work. He stumbled upon a method that has me obsessed and more than anxious to try. Okay, I know, what is it exactly? Please shut up and share already! Okay, okay! I hear you...
This wondrous method full of promise, ease and bounty I speak of is Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening. It is a method that can turn a small area into a very productive and fertile space. It wraps all of this bounty into a neat, little package that (get this) requires little to no weeding and remains productive year after year! It's fully customizable and flexible. Vegetables, flowers and anything else you can grow can employ this method. Some things may need a bit of added depth, but it's not difficult to make those adjustments. The greatest aspect of this method is that in just one square foot, you can grow 1,4,9 or even 16 plants! I know it seems insane, but I promise I'm telling the truth. In fact, you can read all about it here: http://www.squarefootgardening.org . I purchased the book and am so glad I did because the information in it is great to have handy. You can see the book here http://www.amazon.com/Square-Foot-Gardening-Second-Edition/dp/1591865484/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367966937&sr=8-1&keywords=mel+bartholomew .
Mel recommends that the beginner start with one 4x4 garden, but my husband is also ambitious and likes a challenge so he built 5 (yes, I said 5) 4x4 SFG's just for my planting needs. It is a bit pricey because you are buying the wood, the growing medium and plants. In the years to follow, however, you don't need to add anything but compost and plants. In fact, you can cut the costs down to pennies per plant by starting from seed in the appropriate season. I got started a bit late to do this, so for my first season I have purchased plants from the co-op and from our local Lowe's.
The amount of gardens I have doesn't seem much, but once you factor in the amount of plants I planted, you will understand why I took three days to plant them. The amount of plants I planted was a jaw dropping 224, with 64 of them being in one garden as the mesclun lettuces and greens being planted 4 per square. The garden with my green onions, spinach and carrots had 110 due to the 16 per sq of carrots and green onions. Getting the most out of each garden does require a bit of careful planning and preparation. I'll tell you how I did mine.
I read the entire book before I started, but I did have some questions. The terminology of "companion" plants piqued my interest from the books so I wanted to make sure that I did not plant things that did not go together. There are several wonderful websites that have nifty charts that make it easy to determine what will be a good neighbor for each plant. One of these with a color chart is http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/companion-planting/ . I'm so glad that I did read about this because I seriously almost planted my cabbages next to my tomatoes (a big no-no to the experts). I planted all the cabbages with one green pepper in their own SFG to prevent any Hatfield versus McCoy vegetable wars haha!
In my extensive research, I found many helpful websites (there are many SFG sites) and there are even software and apps for planning your garden. You can find some of those here: http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/t590-garden-planning-software . I don't have a particular favorite, but that may change later as I'm able to follow my gardens more.
I was so excited when I finished planting my last plant, that I sat out near my gardens and admired them for hours. I also took pictures of every single plant and that is when the Gnome decided a blog was due. It's my hopes to post regular updates to my garden experience and share my experience, experiments, success and failures. I will try to do that here in the hopes that others trying out this method of gardening will find it and share their experiences. Now, to share some photos!
The pictures of the 4x4 gardens are all mine, my husbands gardens are our older gardens and they are 8x12. It has been raining on the East Coast since Sunday, so there was no sun when I took these. Also, the grass grew so fast, it is time to cut it again already. Next weekend we have grass to cut and I need to trim the excess weed fabric and put up my trellises!
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