It’s my turn to share a little bit about what I (Justin) have been up to in the back yard or what Etta calls her, “garden”
Here are some fun shots of the girls when they were helping me with getting the garden soil ready for planting in the middle of March. The weather was fantastic. I only wish it would last longer than a couple of months before the heat hits.
I am really excited about our garden this year. We are trying some new veggies and using the Square Foot Gardening book as a guide. I really wanted this year to use the space wisely and get the most of our little garden. It’s a triangle shape, not a square. I do really like the design of our triangle garden, though. It requires half the space of a square, gives more room for playing on the lawn and looks more interesting in the yard.
Here is the garden right after I planted on March 17th.
Here is a link the the gardenthat we had last year. I estimated picking over 300 lbs of vegetables for the entire season. It is hard to believe that that all came out of our little 20 square foot garden. We didn’t have time to can anything, so we ended up giving a lot to our neighbors and friends because we couldn’t eat it all.
This year I am going to try keeping track better of exactly how much I harvest out of the garden.
Here is a list of the plants that we decided to try this year.
Vegetables:
(1) Cherry Tomato plant
(1) Cucumber plant
(2) Pumpkin plants
(2) Cantaloupe plants
(1’x2’ area) carrots
(1’x2’ area) lettuce
(1’x2’ area) Spinach
(2’x2’ area) onions
(2) Pea plants
(2) Bell Pepper
strawberries (patch that survived from last year)
(2) Broccoli plants
(1) Yellow Crook Neck Squash
(2) Zucchini plants
We also planted some herbs:
Cilantro
Parsley
Basil
Here are some pics of the garden three weeks later. Since we bought plants for most of the garden, they are growing faster and starting to produce zucchini already. Very exciting because you can do a lot with zucchini.
One thing that I did notice was little plants growing up at random throughout the garden. I realized that they are seeds from the compost. mostly they look like squash and zucchini plants. I am letting some of them grow, so we will be surprised to find out what they become.
Well, I hoped you enjoyed seeing our little garden grow so far.
I would love to know what kind of things are you growing in your garden?
Your garden looks terrific! We have mostly herbs and tomatoes. The critters(deer, rabbits, groundhog) eat everything else. We have woods behind our home and the only year our yard was small critter free was the one when my brother and his dog were living in our home. The deer still looked at our garden as an all you can eat buffet – Buster is not that scary. Love the pics of your girls! Thanks for sharing.
What a great garden! You can never grow enough zucchini. I love that you have compost plants. I always have plants growing in my compost pile too.
I’m in Texas also and am HOPING for some tomatoes before the heat hits. HOPEFULLY we wont have a repeat of last summer but I have a bad feeling.
I’ve got tomatoes and cilantro in one pot and jalapenos and basil in another next to my herb garden. SO far, that’s all I’ve got!
Maybe this weekend I’ll get ambitious…
Renee@CasaStephensInteriors.blogspot.com
Last year we did really good with grape tomatoes. They took over the garden they did so well. This year we are trying cherry tomatoes. I can’t wait to try them. Good luck with your garden!
Your veggie garden is already looking lush. I started mine but it’s not quite like this yet….Christine
It is exciting that it is growing so fast. We need to beat the heat so I decided to buy plants. Some day I want to grow from seed in the house during the cold months.
Very nice! Good job.
I decided to forgo the tomatoes this year. We haven’t had much luck with them over the years. I’ve planted yellow and zucchini squash and jalapeno and Anaheim chilies and onions. Pretty basic stuff but we eat it. I’ll have a second planting of squash in about a month.
I’d like to plant some more berries. We had a great blackberry vine until a couple of winters ago when it was so cold that it didn’t survive. How did your pumpkins turn out last year?
I planted them too early and the heat basically cooked it. We had one about basketball size. I will be planting some more soon. I just really like seeing all the green come to life on the vine.
Cass,
No fair!!! YOu are ahead of us in the growing season! I am in the seeds to seedlings inside still. I am garden jealous 🙂
Hugs,
Bj
I have basil, oregano, tarragon, rosemary, zucchini, a couple of chili plants, scattered strawberry patches, a blueberry shrub my sister-in-law gave me a few months back as well as handful of green peppers here and there. I am planning to add pumpkins in the list soon, too. Your little angels seem to be enjoying themselves. 🙂
LOVE this!!! We haven’t planed anything yet (not until Mother’s Day), but your post makes me excited for that day.
And I love it that you’re trying Square Foot Gardening- we have several friends that love it. Can’t wait to hear how it goes.
As for what we’re planting- a little of everything. Lots of tomato plants (usually 8), tons of herbs, strawberries and raspberries, butternut squash, zucchini, broccoli. Asparagus and Rhubarb is already coming in- so fun!
Can’t wait to see the progress over the next months!