Garden Update: Spring 2015

Raised beds.

Just this week I finally put my tomato and pepper seedlings in their raised beds! In order to cut down on weeding time, I've decided to try a square foot-meets-lasagna-gardening-meets-companion planting experiment. I cut the size of my garden in half from last year. Instead of doing separate crops in rows, different plants will grow together in each 2-foot plot. I also have three 4 x 4' raised beds that Hubs made me. The point of my raised beds and squares is that I won't have to use the tiller. My long term plan is to put most everything into raised beds.

Garden Structure

4 x 4 Raised Beds: These are planted with peppers and tomatoes. Last fall I filled them with alternating layers of leaves, grass clippings, and horse/goat/chicken manure. This Spring before planting put newspaper over everything and then topped it all off with a generous layer of cow manure compost from my parents' farm. Next time the grass gets mowed, the clippings will be put on as mulch.

2 x 2' Squares

2 x 2 Squares: These squares form the basis of a Three Sisters garden. Right now they are planted with cool-season crops, but when it gets warmer I will plant corn and melons/squash in each square. I saw this kind of garden a lot in Guatemala and thought I'd give it a try. Like the raised beds, each planted square gets topped off with a layer of compost and then grass clippings. I will hoe in between the squares and keep piling on mulch, until they all become little mounds of vegetable goodness. 

Plants

Vegetables
Lettuce: The lettuce is coming up nicely. I saved some seeds from last year, and (learning from my mistakes!) I only planted a few heads. Soon I will put in another planting of lettuce.

Lettuce

Peas: The peas are up and growing, also saved from last year. Unfortunately my MIL gave me some dry peas, which got all mixed up with my snap peas. Oops. 

Peas

Green Beans: Beans saved from last year have popped up. A few of them froze and also there were a few that I believe were eaten by bugs before they sprouted. This happened last year, as well.

Radishes: I planted one radish in the middle of each square- most of these have been eaten by bugs.

Carrots: These are leftover from last year. I should probably plant some new ones and let these old ones go to seed.

Tomatoes: I grew Beefsteaks and Romas this year from seed, being careful to label which was which. Unfortunately during the transplanting process the tomatoes were moved into larger cups and the two varieties got mixed up. Oops.

Tomatoes & Peppers

Peppers: I went a little crazy with the peppers, I'll admit. I bought three varieties to grow from seed: California Wonder, Purple Beauty, and Ancho peppers. I also planted some seeds I saved from last year, and some chili pepper seeds that I found in the cupboard.

Chili pepper plants.

Garlic: I bought an Elephant garlic bulb at Walmart and planted each of the cloves, which are coming up nicely.

Fruits
Strawberries: The plants I planted last year are doing great. They have a ton of blossoms and I can't wait for the harvest in a few weeks.

A row of strawberry plants.

Raspberries: The raspberries got a little overrun by weeds and new raspberry shoots. I've tackled most of the weeds but now either have to thin out the new plants or transplant them somewhere. No blossoms on these yet.

A row of weedy raspberry canes.

Herbs
Chives: Up and coming like usual. I might try to save and plant some chives seeds this year.

Sage: Also up and coming like usual.

Dill: We had some volunteer dill pop up from last year. I hope to dry some dill weed to add to my spice cupboard.

Volunteer Dill

Fennel: My fennel also grew back from last year. Does anyone know what fennel is actually used for??

Cilantro: And there is volunteer cilantro EVERYWHERE. This is great, because I've heard that it is in great demand at the Farmer's Market.

Volunteer Cilantro

Basil: I also planted a few basil seeds this Spring. They are coming along very slowly. I'm starting more basil seeds right now (as basil is also a high-demand farmer's market herb). Next year I'll start my herb seeds a whole lot earlier.

Next I'll be planting corn, squashes and melons.

Now get out there and get YOUR hands dirty!

-Bethany