For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows grace and favor and glory - honor, splendor and heavenly bliss! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Psalms 84:11

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

How Does My Garden Grow?

It's been a while since I've showed you my garden, and since one person actually asked me about it I thought I should share my progress.

WARNING: I am not a master gardener! In fact, this is my very first garden EVER! So please do not feel the need to follow in my footsteps in any fashion because I may be completely wrong. The only thing I really do know how to do is read a book and do what it says. I'm pretty good at following instructions... and that's about it.

(Feel free to click on the pictures to ENLARGE! Some of the little things coming up are pretty tiny.)

So this is my little raised bed garden. It actually has a lot more green in it now because since I took these pictures on Sunday I've also planted my starts that I seeded in the house back in February. They'll make an appearance in a few minutes.



These are my snap peas. I planted 2 squares of them, plus 2 more of snow peas. One of my next tasks is to build vertical supports for my peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I'm hoping to do that next weekend, we'll see.



I tried to do nasturtiums in the house back in Feb. too, but they ended up too gangly due to not enough light. So I decided to just throw some seeds in the ground and TA DA! I now have nasturtiums. I don't think I'll try starting them in the house next year. There's actually a 4th one in this square, it's leaves are just a different color.



So The Book says that you should always have nasturtiums and marigolds in your garden because they have natural pest deterrent properties. But it also suggested planting other flowers as well just for fun and to enhance the beauty of your garden. So I picked up a few other flower seed packets at the store. One of them was zinnias. I only see 2 coming up so far, so we'll see. :)



And what's a garden without carrots??? So of course I planted a bunch of them. Get it? A bunch! Ha! I crack myself up...



And I planted 2 side-by-side squares of cilantro. We LOVE cilantro in this house so I wanted to make sure I'd have enough. :)



And then there's my radishes! Aren't they lovely!



My romaine is just starting to come up. I was kinda hoping it would come in faster, but I'll take what I can get. :)



And here's my lovely tomatoes & chives. As you can see I bought 4 tomato plants, and they're all different varieties. One is an heirloom, one is Early Girl, one is Sweet 100 (a cherry tomato), and the last and final one is a yellow pear shaped variety!



And it wouldn't be a garden at my house without some lavender! I bought 3 tiny little lavender starts, all different varieties, all culinary. I thought I'd let them get a good start in my garden, and then I'll probably move them to another spot in my yard once they get bigger. Here they'll get more attention.



Next to the lavender, 2 squares of spinach. I love to put raw spinach in my "green smoothies" every day for lunch and those boxes of organic spinach can get super expensive super fast.



And here's one you might have to click to enlarge! I decided to plant some bok choy. Ain't they cute?!



I also planted some herbs (although I'm sure you gathered that already based on the chives and lavender). Here's my little start of dill.



And here's my varigated thyme. I also have another more traditional thyme planted, but isn't this one pretty?! You'll also notice the edge of my mesculin square, I forgot to take a picture of them. They're also coming in nicely.



And here are some of the things that are now also planted in my little square foot garden. Ignore the stuff in the box... I know, it's hard to (and yes, that is a dwarf climatis! Cool, huh?!). See those strawberry plants? Those are now in my garden. I dedicated an entire 4x4 foot spot to strawberries. The lady who sold them to me said they are 'Evangeline' strawberries. They are not ever-bearing, but she said she gets a bountiful harvest from hers each year, so hopefully there will be enough to make some jam with them or some killer shortcake.



These are what's left of my February starts. From left to right you'll see bell peppers, marigolds, and parsley. The parsley looks pretty sad and pathetic, I don't think I'll start them in the house next year. Especially since the squares where I planted parsley seed ARE coming up. The bell peppers are long and skinny, but I've read other places that if you bury part of the stem that new roots will form along the stalk, so that's exactly what I did when I transferred them to the garden. The marigolds are probably the healthiest of the three. They're actually already forming buds, so I'm sure they'll be fine.



More pathetic parsley.



Depending on how the harvest goes (and if my peppers produce anything at all) I'm thinking I'll just buy starts of these plants next year rather than try to do my own in the house. I just don't have the setup for it and they don't get enough light and heat. Plus they take up a LOT of space on my kitchen counter! lol Just wait, come next February I'll be getting out the soil pellets and lights again trying to make a go of it!

So that's my garden! But stay tuned! I'm planning to share the progress on the rest of my yard on Thursday, and it's possibly even MORE exciting!

16 comments:

Kristina P. said...

Your garden is awesome! My non-exisitent garden hangs it's head in shame.

monica said...

Your garden is wonderful! Maybe next year I can grow a garden with you! You have really inspired me! I can't wait to see other pictures of it as it grows!

David said...

Awesome. Thanks for posting all the photos. It's really nice to see what someone else has planted and how they're all growing. :) Looks great!

Brooke said...

how much money would you say that you have in the garden?

maine momma of 3 (formally: stayathomemommy from maine) said...

what a beautiful garden! So precise, love raised beds, they look well made. I'm sure you'll have success! Happy gardening!

Anonymous said...

Visiting from MoM, you will love having all those fresh veggies, and herbs. How fun! We also plant a huge garden each summer.

Amy said...

lol, meaning how much did I spend or how much do I expect to save on produce?

This year I spent quite a bit getting it all set up. I splurged for the prefab raised bed kits because they're made with synthetic lumber which will never rot or leach bad chemicals into the soil. I didn't want to use wood which would eventually need to be replaced (they say wood used for such a purpose usually needs to be replaced every 3-5 years). Plus I paid for soil delivery, which was about $150 for a sand/compost/peet moss mix. So really no matter how much I "save" on produce this year I'll probably be in the red for at least another 2-3 years. BUT! Eventually I will save money, and will continue to save every summer for as long as I keep it up. Seeds and starts are CHEAP! We're talkin' maybe only $15 for an entire growing season. To me the greatest benefit is having fresh veggies right outside my back door, and knowing where they came from and what (if any) chemicals were used on them, and having the TASTE of FRESHNESS! There's just nothing like a tomato that's ripened on the vine! Or corn freshly picked that morning. Ya know? :)

Amy

Annie*s Granny said...

Hooray Amy! You've got a great start there, and I'm envious of those synthetic beds...they are gorgeous. You've got it right, no matter what it costs, those garden fresh veggies are well worth it.

Annie said...

Your garden looks so good. Maybe next year I try to do the same.

Have a nice week.

Anonymous said...

Consider me inspired and highly impressed! Your garden rocks! Please keep us updated as I would love to add one to my house!

Helene said...

Wow!!! Your garden looks amazing!!!!!! I'm also doing a veggie garden for the first time this year and it fails in comparison to yours!!!!

Little Lady Cakes said...

I think your thumb is turning green. :)

GartenGrl said...

Awesome Garden! Great work...I am a big fan of herbs in the veggie garden and all through out the other beds as well. I wanted to mention that you may want to put some hay or some shredded bark down around the tomoatoe plants. This will keep the splash factor to a minimum which will help keep the "yellow spot" which all tomatoes have now to a minimum. Good gardening luck and enjoy!

Stacy said...

Beautiful garden! Great job.

Christa said...

Your garden looks great! I would never have guessed it's your first one.

The Rambler said...

I am in awe!

Reason 458099 I want a house so bad. To be able to do this. Have somewhat of a sustainable life :)

GREAT GREAT garden.

And thank you so much for your comments today. It always brings a girls spirits up. :)

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