Coming Right Along

Yesterday I planted the rest of the transplants and the pole beans.  The pole beans are the only ones I'm starting from seed this year.  All the tomatoes have cages around them and Max helped me set up the trellis. I also added mulch around the boxes.

I forgot to mention that I have a composter now! I'm so excited about this.  Max picked one up from the city for us.  I have been reading a book called Let it Rot that I borrowed from my neighbor. Imagine my excitement when I learned I could compost dryer lint and my coffee grounds/filter! ha! :D

Today I bought roses. Sigh. I am complete.  I plan on putting them in the ground sometime this week.  They will go along the back fence where they should get plenty of sun and thankfully mask the chain link fence.

Plant-astic!

I put a grid on my SFG boxes.  Unfortunately, the wood lath I bought in 4 ft lengths was a bit too short to nail into the edges of the box.  I just bolted the lath to each other and am crossing my fingers. hehe.  Next, I copied my neighbor and set up 3 ft chicken wire fencing around the boxes to keep out the bunnies and squirrels (and whoever it was that was digging in my soil before I even planted a thing).  Now I just needed plants!

This year was a busy one.  It is my first year feeling like a full fledged gardener too so I decided to do transplants instead of starting from seed.  I went to the Farmer's Market and got tomatoes, peppers, herbs, peas, beets and eggplant.

Then I picked up a few more plants yesterday that are still waiting to be planted.  I got jalapeno, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, chives, cilantro and strawberries.  

Today, I am planting pole beans.  I still need to construct my trellis for the beans and peas.  And I am thinking about moving my summer squash from the SFG into the neighboring dirt.  I just think it'll get too big!

Raised Beds

The boxes are on the ground. The mix is made and is in the boxes!

:)

Phew! That was hard work--mixing all the soil components by shovel... Meanwhile, Max is painting our dining room. We're so productive today!

Bloomin

My first iris of the season bloomed today.

:)

My azaleas are done blooming and starting to wilt.  There are small caterpillars eating the leaves.  There were tons last year and I sprayed them with some organic non-chemical hippie spray.  It seemed to kill them.  What are they and why do they want to eat my plants?!

I am hoping that my peonies will wait to bloom until Jacque comes to visit--they are her favorite flower.

Ground Level

Today I weeded the garden and by weeded, I mean I removed the dead stuff from last year that I should have removed this past Fall.

Max, the helpful husband, is tilling the space behind the garage so we can level the ground and put the planter boxes on top. :)  He's great!

2012 Garden Plans

Here are the tentative garden plans for 2012:

Box 1:
Tomatoes (plum, cherry, regular)
Chives
Cucumber
Parsley
Marigold
Eggplant
Peppers (hot, sweet)
Oregano
Basil
Yellow Squash

Box 2:
Beans
Peas
Spinach
Cabbage
Beets
Mint
Thyme
Cauliflower
Cilantro
Lettuce
Broccoli
Acorn Squash
Strawberries

I was going to include zucchini, as I've heard it's the easiest to grow for beginners, but I don't have the space yet to give it.  We shall see.

The plan is to build the boxes and mix the soil next week during Spring Break.  The soil mix will be peat moss, vermiculite, and compost.

Harvest Peppers

The temperature at night is getting pretty low now so I have decided to harvest my bell peppers and anaheim peppers.  It really isn't getting hot during the day either.  I will post a picture later.