Our First Garden
We're lucky to have a good-sized backyard. Most of our neighbors' backyards consist of little patches of grass with a concrete patio block, but our lot was an oddball - amounting to a 30' x 60' back with plenty of room for fun stuff. Eventually we're going to design the backyard and incorporate the great antique bricks we got off freecycle, make a fire pit and a few seating areas, plus a small (mosquito-free) "fountain" of some sort that be wants, but for now the only thing we've started is the garden.
be and i basically knew nothing about gardening a few months ago. Our main reasons for reading a ton of books, scouring the internet for information and constantly harrassing dude over IM are as follows: 1) We need an insane amount of delicious tomatoes, 2) A constant supply of fresh herbs makes food so much better, and 3) Plants are our friends.
The technique we followed was the "Square Foot Gardening" concept - a space-saving, non-traditional approach to growing produce. The book was very easy to follow; the only set backs were finding affordable vermiculite and decent compost in the amounts needed to fill the boxes. (We're going to start making our own compost shortly!) We made two SFG boxes, amounting to 16 squares. Everything we bought was organic (seedlings and seeds) and majority non-GMO. Most of the seeds were from Botanical Interests and the seedlings from Greensgrow in North Philly.
As you can see in the picures, we planted a bunch of seedlings and sowed the remainder from seeds directly in the ground. As of now, everything has come up (yay!) but it's going to take a lot of watering and care to keep the seedlings growing and not drying out. The location offers the garden full sun - about 9 hours a day - so we might even have to shade some of the greens so they don't fry.
be absolutely loves gardening. He's been waking up extra early each morning just to water everything. Every night after work, we inspect the squares to see any new sprouts or changes in the seedlings. It's been exciting and i can't wait to actually eat something we've grown!
Items in SFG Left:
Cucumber
Tomato: Sweet 100
Tomato: Cherokee Purple
Tomato: Pineapple
Radishes
Quinoa
Basil: Siam Queen
Soybeans
Marigolds
Carrots: Tonda
Kale
Spinach
Arugula
Lettuce: Marvel of the Four Seasons
Items in SFG Right:
Tomato: Brandywine
Tomato: Green Zebra
Tomato: Better Boy
Tomato: Sun Gold
Sage
Basil: Cinnamon
Basil: Asmin
Watermelon: Sugar Baby
Marigolds
Carrots: Nantes
Lettuce: Speckles
Lettuce: Black Seed
Watermelon: Crimson Sweet
Items in Containers:
Hot Pepper: Jalepeno
Hot Pepper: Thai Dragon
Eggplant: Cloud Nine
Eggplant: Ping Tung
Lavender
Rosemary
Lemon Thyme
Cilantro
Bunny Tails
Oats & Wheatgrass
Catnip
Mint: Common
Mint: Chocolate
Items we still have to plant somewhere:
Early blueberry bush
Late blueberry bush
Raspberry bush
I really hope all goes well. be says he's found some "bugs" on a few of the seedlings so we're now looking into non-toxic pest control. Otherwise, it's been fun getting the garden started. Seeing those tiny sprouts poke through the soil is something i can't describe, except that it makes us so happy. Right now we count 5 tiny green tomatoes on the Sweet 100 plant. The cats love the oats & wheatgrass. The herbs smell fantastic (and the cilantro sure tastes good!). Hope we'll be wallowing in tomato goodness by summer!
posted by beXn @ 12:14 AM
5 Comments:
That garden looks so good! Great job dudes. You're going to have tons of delicious tomatoes. Have you got a trellis up yet? Make it as tall as you can deal with -- I'd even say make it way too tall and get a small stepladder, because I bet those plants will go as high as you let them.
Our salad garden is overflowing, and many of our summer veggies have sprouted. I'll post some pics on flickr soon.
Definitely post pictures soon!
We did set up a trellis. I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but basically it's what SFG recommends: nylon netting, rebar and metal poles. We built it 6' high. If i could do it again, i would've placed everything 1' closer to the fence; we really didn't need that much room behind the trellis. We also plan to put gravel or something around the boxes cause the grass is getting trampled. Tonight we might harvest a little mint!
Thanks for your help again!
Hi Bexn
That's right, plants are definitely our friends! :) That is so cute that Be gets up extra early every morning to water the plants. You do realize when I come visit I am going to just sit and stare at your plants all day, and talk to them, and then also beg you to let me make herbal extracts/tinctures, and herbal infused oils and vinegars and such? ;P
Cheers,
Solar Plant Kitty!
I was wondering what sort of quinoa seed you used? i know quinoa rarely grows at less than 1 mile high... but maybe some seeds can?
Oh i just used some seeds i got from Whole Foods. As of Sept, our quinoa was doing well (about 3 feet high) but a huge storm broke some of the stalks and the plants never recovered... i guess there's always next year!
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