The Garden

 

 

We’ve been VERY BUSY  the past few weeks finishing up our garden.  It’s pretty much all we’ve been doing.  Jeff busted his tail to build the raised garden beds (2- 6 x 8 on the ends and 2 – 4 x 24 along the middle).  On the right we planted green beans, peas and carrots.  Behind that bed are sweet corn (I didn’t have enough room to plant 4 rows of at least 6, which I read is the minimum amount you need for proper pollination, but I was able to fit 3 rows of 6 so we’ll see how that comes out) and sunflowers.  The bed on the left holds our strawberry patch, yum.  In the front bed, 4 x 24, we have tomatoes (4 varieties- early girl, an heirloom hybrid, red cherry, and golden nugget), peppers (sweet green, California bell, and jalapeno), basil, chives and of course marigolds to keep the bad guys away.   In the rear bed, 4 x 24, we have lettuce (head, romaine, and green leaf), onions (regular and green), cucumbers, zucchini, and sugar baby watermelon.  In the tree wells on either side of the garden are companion flowers to draw in the good bugs and drive away the bad ones, as well as marigolds throughout the whole thing.  We received a dwarf cherry tree as a gift and planted it in a large pot until we decide where to plant it.  Hopefully in the future we can add raspberries, blueberries and rhubarb.

So far, of the veggies that we started from seed in the garden, peas, carrots and lettuce have sprouted.  Of the plants we started indoors, we weren’t very successful but 3 tomato plants and 5 bell pepper plants managed to survive the hardening off and transplant.  I’m still learning how to do this…I have a few ideas of how to be successful next year with this.  I’m not sure if the plants that I started from seed indoors will bear any fruit this year but I also planted a few starts that I purchased at the farmer’s market.  I’ll post an update later in the season to show what, if any, veggies and fruit make it.

 

The view from our back door

Side view of the garden

The strawberry patch

Our friend, the owl, who will hopefully keep the birds out of the garden .

Peas, green beans, and carrots…corn and sunflowers behind

Companion flowers

…a look from the back porch.