The garden is underway!

Garden with wood walking paths

 I'm really pleased with how the garden is looking so far. May was unseasonably warm, so I got a lot of my vegetables planted pretty early. We had a couple of frost scares, but I think everything is doing okay.Some of my seedlings didn't make it, so I had to supplement with seedlings bought from a local organic farm.

We had quite a long dry spell in May as well, so the garden got almost daily watering. Then this past weekend it got poured on, and is still wet now - I just can't win with the watering!

My children each picked what they wanted to plant in their gardens. They have some lettuce, broccoli, carrots, cherry tomatoes and watermelons. A nice variety.

My kids' gardens

Our corn plants

Sugar snap peas before adding a trellis

I did get my first harvest of about 6 radishes last week. I have another batch growing that should be ready in a week or two as well. The tomatoes are flowering, and the basil and rosemary are ready for use. The red lettuce shouldn't be far behind. It will be great to walk out and get some fresh veggies later in the summer!

Besides adding the compost to our soil, I also added a little bit of organic fertilizer around each plant about 10 days after they were planted.

I think this blog will be a great place to track the progress of the garden, even if no one else reads it. :)

Almost planting time!

Some of my seedlings are really starting to look good - like small little plants, in fact! I plan on getting them in the ground next weekend, when the chances of frost have passed. I also started some new plants like cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash that will be ready for planting shortly too. Unfortunately, I have some seedlings that didn't do well. My pepper plants, both jalapeno and green peppers, haven't done much. I think they got stunted because they dried out. We went away for a long weekend, and when we came back, they weren't looking so great. My broccoli and cauliflower are both a little leggy, but if I plant the stems in the dirt a little, I think they might be ok. I was hoping I wouldn't have to buy any plants this year, but peppers will definitely be on the list.

Is Spring finally here?

Yesterday was the first weekend day that we could actually get outside and get some yard work done. Today its even nicer out, so we're hoping to get the garden at least started. We need to replace some side boards, add another 4 feet at the end for our kids' gardens, and till the whole thing. After tilling, we'll get a load of compost to mix in. Then we can fence it in to prevent our abundance of squirrels from having their own garden buffet. I'm hoping that this will all be completed by this weekend, so I can get some early spring seeds in the ground like radishes, sugar snap peas and parsnips. I think we'll still be having a frost or two during the next month, but for the most part, the weather looks pretty decent.

We went away for 5 days last week, and some of my seedlings didn't fare so well without daily watering, especially my peppers. I'm hoping they will perk up, but I may need to buy some seedlings after all this year. Starting from seeds is definitely hard - I feel like the plants should be larger than they are at this point. Now that we're having more sunny days, hopefully we'll see more growth!

Lack of Sunshine

With the weather being so cloudy (and unfortunately, snowy), I've had to place my seedlings under grow lights to make sure they are getting enough light each day. I also started some sweet Italian basil and red cherry tomato seeds today. So far the germination rates have been pretty good. I think I've only had one broccoli and one tomato plant not germinate. Hopefully the grow lights will help them grow strong and not leggy, although I think my broccoli plants already look a little leggy. I can't imagine having the garden going in a month, as its still covered with a few inches of snow.

In other news, we bought a tiller! Just a small, electric one, that should be the perfect size for our small garden. Hopefully with some deeper dug soil, the garden will drain better and the plants will be happier!





Planning, planning, planning

Since we still have about a foot of snow on the ground (and more on the way...) the only gardening to do right now is planning and starting seeds. We're being ambitious with the number of plants we have this year, and we're also having our children start their own gardens. I'm excited about the variety of plants, and hope that we can lay everything out so that it fits.

This year we're going to try growing:

The start of the garden! Broccoli, cauliflower and onions.

True lavender
Snowball cauliflower
Waltham 29 broccoli
Beefsteak tomato
Green pepper - Yolo wonder
Early jalapeno pepper
Valencia onion
Red cherry tomato
Sweet italian basil
Black beauty zucchini
Yellow crookneck squash
Marketmore 76 cucumber
Cherry belle radish
Spinach - bloomsdale
Hollow crown parsnip
Sugar snap pea
Carrot - Imperator 58
Romaine, crisphead and buttercrunch lettuce
Golden bantam corn
Green beans
Brussels sprouts - Long island

In the past we've only done a few types of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, beans, broccoli and zucchini, so this is a big change for us. 

Spring Fever

After this long, brutal winter, I'm itching to get my hands in the dirt. I've got some seeds started indoors to help me get over my case of spring fever. I've always purchased seedlings from a local organic farm, but this year I've decided to put more time and effort into my gardening, and I'm hoping that will produce greater results.

I purchased organic seeds on Amazon and from a local store that included plant varieties that are supposed to grow well in my area, 5A. We have a short growing season, so starting seeds indoors is pretty much the only option for many plants.

The past two or three years our garden has not produced well, for various reasons. We didn't till, like we should have. We did turn the dirt over and add topsoil, but that was it. Now that I've spent some time reading online and in books about proper gardening, this year we're going to invest in a small tiller. I'm also going to experiment with some raised beds for my kids to grow plants in, based on the square foot gardening method.

I'm hoping that by summer, we'll have lots of fresh produce to eat, right from our own backyard!