Gardening Expedition

So being without cable TV I have found that I have had a little more time for some fun hobbies. My first is to try my hand at having a garden. We have a perfect little area that is already blocked off on the side of our house that I used last year as a garden - but we had some limited success. I tried to start everything with seeds but ended up putting them outside to early (at least I think that is what I did!) and they didn't prosper so I ended up buying plants instead. Needless to say I spent more on the plants and seeds than I would have if I went to the store to just buy the produce! So this year I started out in February with some research (surprise surprise - me doing research!) Since Andrew was in the basement creating beautiful masterpieces for our little junior, I had some extra time to get on the Internet and find out how exactly to plant a garden.

So for all of you trying to do gardening - the website I ended up using to plan out my garden was awesome. I was able to just use the free sample software (although I might try to buy it for next year because it was pretty cheap and useful) GrowVeg.com. I told them where I lived, what I wanted to grow, and how much space I had to work with outside. They then got me a little diagram that looked like the measurements of my garden. I was able to put little pictures of the plants I wanted. The best part if they made them certain sizes so you wouldn't plant too close and allow you to judge how many you would need.

As you can see my diagram - it shows me how many to plant of each item. It was a fun program as you just click on the picture of the plant you want and then click and hold over how much of the area you want of that plant. So easy! Another great tool they have on there (and probably more than I even tried out) was a little "cheat sheet" you clicked on that told you to plant next to this item or away from this item. So that helped to know where to put things. Once I was finished playing with my garden - I then was able to print of this sheet as well.

Now this sheet was my lifesaver. I still have it setting on the desk, covered in mud and smudged because I would bring it with me when I planted. I did a variety of plants - some from seed and some started as a plant (depending on what Farmer's Almanac said about which was easiest!) My seed plants were lettuce, peas, beans, carrots, and broccoli. The plants I bought were tomatoes, peppers, squash, and onion bulbs. I didn't have a lot of luck with these plants as seeds last year so I went to the giant sale at Sutherlands and got tons of my plants for dirt cheap. Making up for the money I wasted last year! So here are some pics of my garden so far - some plants have turned out and some haven't but for being my first large scale garden, I am pretty proud of myself :-) And I think Andrew was a tad bit impressed as well - especially after our somewhat disaster last year!

So here is a view of the entire garden.

My lovely lettuce (which we have been able to eat and is delicious!) along with my giant onions. These have just grown and grown! I also did a few marigolds in there to help keep the rabbits away (as well as the fence - lesson learned from last year)

And a few tomato plants - we did a variety of types such as Big Boy, Cherry, and Early Girl. All were recommended on the Kansas State website as being very easy to grow!

Those two tiny green sprouts were my attempt at broccoli. Sad - they obviously did not turn out. Our neighbor who has an amazing garden (with beautiful broccoli) told me to try it with a plant for next year as I probably planted them too late so they didn't quite sprout. You win some you lose some - Andrew doesn't really enjoy broccoli so he didn't seem too upset! But behind my broccoli are some pepper plants (bell peppers) that seem to be doing quite well next to some random marigolds.

And here we have my peas and beans. I think I need to get something to have the peas start to grow up on. The beans are supposed to be bush bean so hopefully I won't need to much of an extra support. The peas have little pea pods already! Can't wait to enjoy some of those.

And the squash. The first year I planted squash it took over EVERYTHING. I will have to make sure to watch it this year. Nothing like some summer squash on the grill.

Another somewhat fail - carrots. Those two green plants are supposed to be two full rows of carrots. I guess we will have to wait and see if they turn out! On the other side of these I have a few more tomato plants (I couldn't find the potatoes they suggested so I just grew some more tomatoes in their spot)

And then our herb garden. I just have a little basil, cilantro, and oregano to help us cook some lovely veggies once the garden has taken off.

And these are Andrew's little pride and joy. We were at Lowe's and Home Depot on Earth day and they were giving our little evergreen tree starters. Andrew got one from each store and has planted them on our patio. We will see which ones are the best!

So there it is - our garden (from the other view). For next year Andrew is already planning on making a rain barrel to put at the other end (see where the rose bush is located near the wooden fence?). We didn't have enough time to research it for this year, which stinks because I feel like it rained all the time! But next year that is his big project and contribution to the garden. Say a little prayer that it keeps going well and we can have lots of fresh produce to make some lovely baby food in the fall :-)