Finally planted!

Today we finally got the garden mostly planted! The only things missing are potatoes and pea plants (if we can find any, WalMart was out). This past weekend Hubby helped me finish getting the garden ready. We got a huge load of compost, much more than we need, and spent a few hours Saturday evening shoveling that into the garden, compost box, and overflow into the little kiddie pool. I have a friend coming to get the extra this week.

Then Monday I was afraid we wouldn't be able to finish getting it ready because it poured rain most of the day, but in the brief sunny breaks we got it done. Hubby put together a raised box for the root crops and filled it and I got my squares all measured and staked out and twined. It looked perfect (well, not perfect, but good enough for me!).

My little sister Kelsey just moved in with us and she helped me and the boys with the planting this morning. I went through and had her hand me seeds and plants for the vegetables as I went along. Then we invited the boys to help us with the flowers. They had so much fun. Aunt Kelsey would get a flower out and they would take turns bringing them to me to put in the holes. We also planted a few hostas and the rest of the flowers in our front flower bed.

I can't wait to see what actually grows! Hopefully in a week or two we will see some stuff sprouting up. Here's a few pics from today:

The boys and Kelsey

And what the garden looks like now (click to see better)

My Garden

Here is the garden bed as it is right now:


And here are the strawberry plants already in the garden. Hopefully they don't die when I transplant them. (I took this before watering them, the ones on the right perked up a ton after watering.)


This is my rough draft for planting. I was shocked at how much I can actually fit in my little garden. We don't use a lot of fresh veggies normally so I was having a hard time filling this out with things I think we will actually eat. (Click to enlarge)

To Start

I'm starting with a raised garden bed that is already in place. It measures about 2'10" x 24'. We weeded and dug up the dirt before I decided I am not going to use that dirt. Instead I am going to cover the dirt with landscaping fabric, put a 6" tall wood border around the edge, and fill it with "Mel's Mix" (1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss) to start out with the perfect gardening soil. Then I will lay out a square foot grid so I can easily plan and plant my garden. I have already put together a rough draft of what I want to plant and where, but it is subject to change. There are some strawberry plants already growing in one corner of the garden that I hope to transplant into the new soil without killing them.

Hubby picked up some old plywood I got off freecycle and is going to borrow a saw to cut it into the 6" boards I need to frame in the bed. Hopefully he can get that done tomorrow so I can get the rest of the things I need (landscape fabric and "Mel's Mix" stuff and seeds/plants) and get it all ready this week. I would like to get everything going this week because we are supposed to have some rain storms and I think it would be helpful to the plants to start out with a nice warm rain. If not, I really want to plant no later than next week because I'm already planting a bit later than is best.

Black Thumb

Welcome to my garden blog. This is my first year with a garden and I am going to be trying out the Square Foot Garden method by Mel Bartholomew. It seems like the most clear-cut, easy to understand way which is what I need.

Because I have a black thumb. Really.

Any potted plant I've gotten has died within a few weeks. I received a spider plant once, a plant that is supposedly very easy to care for, and it slowly but surely died. I attempted to grow tomatoes last year starting from seeds. The cats and kids managed to kill off 14 of 18 seedlings before I could transplant them, and the 4 I transplanted to a little spot outside, slowly grew but not enough, and never bore fruit. So this year, I'm hoping for a miracle.