So this is the weekend! Time to plant our first garden. We had two cold nights the past two nights but the gardener told us to plant April 15th and the weather this weekend looks amazing so we’re going for it. Today we went and bought all the plants and these are the temporary plans. They seem to change hourly but this will give you a sense of where we’re headed:
The entire goal of this whole thing is to make really good salsa, tomato sandwiches, pesto, salads, tomato soup, zucchini bread, and jalapeño poppers. Hopefully, that’s just the beginning. For a total of $35 for all the plants I just don’t think you can beat that.
Our beds are 3×6 but Scott put a trim around the top and it’s taking up a few inches on each side so I treated it more like 2×6 in the plans if things look off a little to those trying to do the math. Since it’s raised beds and my first time, I just really didn’t want to squish anything. If I find things have extra room, I’ll know I can squeeze some more things in next year. Assuming of course that this is not a total fail!
Honestly, I could have easily done a 3rd bed. I was drawn to spinach, onions, more peppers and maybe even some corn. There was something captivating about ALL THE PLANTS at the farmer’s exchange that made you want to plant it all.
So, experts, before I plant, do you see any pitfalls in this plan?
You can’t beat $35! I’m jealous of your cilantro. I tried an herb garden a few years ago but it was inside and it wasn’t very successful. I would eventually like to do some raised beds like you but we’ll have to put chicken wire around them to keep the deer out. We have a whole family of them behind my house and I love that but I don’t want them to eat my veggies!
I had some planted parsley and just about killed it over the winter. I put it out in the garden two weeks ago and it has FLOURISHED since then. We don’t have a well-lit kitchen window so I think it’s been loving the sunlight.
I’m so excited for you & it turns out you late planters made the perfect decision! Wow, this chilly weather was a shocker. Thankfully our garden made it. The only thing I would do differently is take out the marigold. You don’t need a whole block for them imo and you can easily plant a few here and there around the veggies & tomato plants especially. If it were me I’d use that block dedicated for marigolds and plant more basil or another pepper. You won’t get a ton from 1 basil plant. I have 12 planted for this season & will likely put in more late summer. I pick my leaves before a blossom appears & make pesto to freeze through winter.
Thank you! I bought extra lettuce and broccoli so I’ll plant them there and put the marigold just in between. My mom has basil at her house too and she doesn’t really use it so I have that too.
PS, Ally, I would love to see some pics of your garden!
I’m so NOT an expert but when this post popped (picture first) up in my Reader … I thought it was caskets! 😉
Beth, we were just talking about that the other night. It was even more weird when we had the big shovel out by it!
Looks awesome! and delicious! Hoping we’ll be invited over for dinner this summer:)
Thank you, I would love it if we could make a dinner out of some of this! Definite excuse to celebrate with friends!
Scott did a great job on the boxes! What type of wood did he use ($$$$ or $)?
One thought I had was: which way is south? Since you have no apparent problem with shade, you can easily design for trellises. A good rule of thumb is that the trellis should be on the north side so that it doesn’t cast a shadow on the rest of the garden.
Another thought was cover. Right now the garden looks naked, which will require extra watering. This video really got me thinking:
. It’s long, but the simple concept is very convincing. <– I have a wood mulch pile in my back yard, and even if it hasn't rained for a week, I can put my hand a few inches in and the wood mulch is dripping wet.
The boxes were a real splurge. I was insistent on no chemicals and went for cedar. I think the boxes were over $200.
The boxes are basically North/South.
I saw Ashley post that video a few days ago and your tweet was a reminder to watch it…watching it now.