After 3 years we have plants!!!!!

3 years ago we decided to create a landscaped area in our backyard, so one weekend when I was at my parents my husband cut out the sod to create our new landscaped area. We had not a clue at the time what we were going to do with this area, so it became a weed lot. Last summer we worked to keep the weeds at bay and he laid brick to form a border....still not a clue what we were going to do with the area. Finally over the winter I found a landscape layout that I liked in a book we have had for a few years. I started to look at the plant list and made a list of plants that work with the zone we live in, and a list that we are to far north to grow. FWIW we are on the southern edge of zone 4, but all the catalogs think we are zone 5, um NOPE! One day I even took out the tape measure and the landscape area we created was similar in size to the one in the book. Could it really be done? How much would it cost? BIG questions!!!

Earlier this spring we visited a local greenhouse...and took a list of plants. I was excited that many of the plants on the list were for sale in our community. Then I started to get sticker shock. 1 pot of the grass listed was $21.00 - take that times 5, plus 15 more plants...um not in the budget this summer. So I started looking for the plants in a gardening catalog, and had a 50% spring sale going on...so I put together an order $150 for the entire planting area and shipping. Ok I know we are taking a chance here, but for that price I was willing to take a chance. Mid week last week, in the middle of the rain, we got a box of plants...so I put them in the garage for safe keeping. I had hopped to plant on Saturday, but with the chance of frost on Saturday night I decided to wait till today.

So today after church we cleared off the planting area, laid out all the plants, used XL depressors as plant markers because Lowes was out of the write on kind of markers, and I planted them. I was concerned about how small everything looked, but I know it will grow. I was also amazed how much better everything looked after it had been watered. So now I need to keep up with regular watering of the bed till it gets going. I"m so excited to finally make progress on this!

I also got a bag of day lilies that I planted, hopefully they will give some color and excitement to the west side of the house during the summer. Now to figure out the east side of the house...I'm thinking hostas (the desired cost: free) and coral bells, or something like that from my Mom's...a plant that has been in the family a few generations!

Mothers Day - Garden's In!

Put in my veggie garden last night! Now to remember what is where.

from east to west
Sweet peppers (green turning red) w/ kohlrabi interplanted
onions
tomatoes - grape in front and Roma in back (oh and 1 cabage)
more onions (Walla Walla's)
tomatoes - both are slicers, can't remember the var. at the moment (radishes inter planted, too)
1 double row of green beans (proves my garden is TO small)
1 double row of peas (could use 3x this much!)
jalapeno peppers w/ kohlrabi interplanted

For Mothers Day my hubby got me a hanging plant! Its gorgeous...now to keep it that way?!?

My oldest son picked out a bird feeder and my youngest picked out a fishing pole so Mommy can go fishing, too.

Onions are planted

Decided to get the onions in the ground this morning before they spoil sitting on the kitchen counter. The garden was SO nice to work in, the dirt was very soft and there were NO clumps to fight. SO glad we tilled it. Did end up with a row of onions between the tomato cages (no plants yet) time will tell if that works or not. That's okay because gardening is one giant experiment!

Spring 2009 - in the garden

The spring of 2009 is off to a cool start. Its not as wet as last year but just feels like it has taken forever to have nice sunny spring days..maybe that's because April rains were here to bring May flowers, lol.

Last night My hubby rented a small tiller after work from Home Depot. He stopped at the new True Value close to work but they only have two and both were rented out (I think my neighbors have the big one for their new gardening adventures.) A few weeks ago I used the hand tiller to break up the garden and help it start to get ready for spring. We added 3 bags of compost/manure to the garden, and some egg shells...for nutrients. He also tilled the east side of the house where we are going to plant some hostas and other shade loving plants...yay!

We went to the garden center 2 weekends ago and purchased bedding plants. I also purchased seeds.

Looks like I purchased more seeds than we will have room for...I always do that. All seeds are Burppee and purchased at Home Depot.

• Spinach - Avon Hybrid
• Radish - Cherry Belle
• Green Bean - Greencrop
• Green Bean - Tenderpick
• Pea - Burpeeana Early
• Pea - Sugar Daddy
• Mesculun - Sweet Salad Mix
• Lettuce - Gourmet Blend
• Swiss Chard - Burpee's Rhubarb Chard

We also purchased some flower seeds...Have no clue where they are going to go...both are white, humm (My boys helped me pick them out)

• Marigold - French Vanilla Hybrid
• Alyssum
  

From the sale at Prariewoods I purchased some Seed Savers Seeds

• Cilantro
• Basil

From Peck's Garden Center

• Roma Tomato
• Tomato #2
• Tomato #3
• Tomato #4
• 6 pk kohlrabi
• 6 pk sweet pepper
• 1-2 jalapeno pepper

From My Parents...they got it free somewhere

• 2 cabbage plant...one gave its live to a toddler's experimentation.

Right know the plants are being hardened off on the deck. If it does not rain I may try and put them into the garden tomorrow. First I need to find enough covers for the tender plants...wonder how many milk jugs are still in the garage?

Got a pot of Lilly of the Valley from my Grandma's house this weekend...Can't wait to see them grow!

Memories of the 2008 gardening year

2008 was a strange year for growing. May and June were VERY wet months...anyone heard of the Cedar River's Flooding? Ya that rain water had to come from somewhere. My backyard garden however fared unusually well!


(Photos: top - my youngest and his favorite veggie, strait from the garden! Middle my garden mid June, hey its growing!!! Bottom Green Beans and Peas from my garden!)



On the east side I planted green beans and peas, and they grew...and had nice crops. In the middle I put a "walking" strip of newspaper and grass...Using Square Food Gardening as an inspiration. (Ya my garden is about that big...its 12'x4' or so...and not big enough for our growing family, that's why we also purchase a CSA share.) On the west side were 3 or 4 tomatoes, and there was a tomato in a 1/2 barrel but the house...it was a Fourth of July var. tomato but did not have fruit ripen until early August.


I tried the jalapeno under/beside the peas and beans, that did not work. It had LOW production, compared to other years, and was just not happy.

One more surprise from the 2008 growing season was the length....we did not have a killing freeze until late in October so we got lots of extra peppers and tomatoes to freeze (yum).




Most of the peppers came from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Share...I froze them on sheet pans and put into zip top freezer bags. They lasted through most of the winter. I also made some yummy tomato sauce using steps from an Alton Brown Recipe on Food Network. It made the best
mid-winiter tomato sauce EVER!

A Garden's blog

Why create a blog for my garden? Because I can not remember what I do from season to season or year to year...and my notes always get lost. Which side of the garden were the tomatoes on last year? What worked with the peas and green beans? What happened to my jalapenos? All questions that we have asked about our garden. I will also use this blog to track our landscaping adventures.