In honour of spring, I thought I would let you know what I've got planned for the garden. It will be a while before I can actually get outside and do anything about these plans, however. (I haven't set things up to start seeds indoors.)
Here's what the garden looked like this afternoon:
Not a whole lot to work with, yet!
Here's a photo from last fall when we finally got all four planter boxes built:
I didn't plant anything in the two front boxes. Those are weeds.Last year, I planted just two of these four foot by four foot boxes. This year, I have plans to plant all of them. I hope I'm not being too ambitious.
Box A: (NE Corner, upper left): onions, potatoes and nasturtiums.
Box B: (SE corner, next to the playhouse): spinach, beets, carrots and parsley.
Box C: (NW corner, bottom left): 2 zucchini plants and peas.
Box D: (SW corner, bottom right): 2 tomato plants and marigolds.
Like this:
I've had to juggle start dates like mad for our Zone 3 garden, but it looks as though I should be able to sow everything but the spinach, the marigolds, tomatoes and onions after our first frost free date which is in mid-May. (In fact, the May long weekend celebrating Queen Victoria's Birthday is known as the "Garden weekend" here.)
I'll purchase the marigolds, onions and tomatoes already started and plant them in mid to late April. Apparently, that would be a good time to sow the spinach seeds, too.
It's hard to be patient!
Any thoughts from experienced gardeners out there? Have I got too much in the SE box? Have I got some crops paired up which shouldn't be? Help and advice appreciated!
Added: I'm unable to comment, again. (sigh). I don't know what's going on. Building the planter boxes was easy: I had my husband read the instructions at the Pioneer Woman's Website which I've found again, here: Build your own raised beds..
5 comments :
Do you have any idea what caused your allergic reaction? what were the symptoms?
About the gardening. Maybe you could pair up the onion and carrot, because carrot repels onion fly (that is what it is called in Finnish, you might have some different name for it) and onion repels carrot fly.
Here is a companion plant list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants
Maybe you've read that allready.
You don't have much potato? Here potato usually gets the biggest spot in the garden.
I wish I could help- I can't garden much because of the deer- they eat everything! Right now we have a herd of at least 10 digging my snow to eat my periwinkle on the hillside every night.....
I love those planting beds-how hard were they to build?
From my reading/experience, this is what I can tell you:
Plant weird potatoes. Unusual stuff you can't buy at a grocery store. They are way more worth it.
Plant nasturtiums in your garden. Just scatter them around the edges by the fence or something. No need to separate them out with the veggies (unless they are like marigolds for tomatoes).
Spinach, beets and carrots all kind of need more room, you can't really grow them crowded super close together. Parsley, like nasturtims, I would stick in a flowerbed or pot and save the space in the box for pickier things.
If you are a zucchini fan (I assume you are if you're planting more than one plant), I would plant two different types. They can be fairly interchangeable in recipes and pattypan or UFO squash are tasty and fun!
Only two tomato plants seems skimpy to me, but I am a fan. My minimum is three plants of three different varieties but there are two of us here who eat them like candy.
Hope some of that was helpful!
I second that tomato suggestion. They are fantastic right out of the garden.....
Your garden looks really great. I do not think there are any problems with the SE corner box being overcrowded. Good luck !
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