Planning the garden

It's time for some organized planning. I've struggled with how to keep my thoughts in order with so many beds to lay out using the square foot gardening method. I decided on a plan to have two large gridded sheets. It naturally worked out that one sheet covers most of the early spring plantings and the other the later spring plantings. I can use the see-through vellum to overlay succession plantings for the next go round. I tried to keep track of everything on the computer but I just couldn't coordinate well enough between the actual planting into the keyboard.

Finishing the planting of bed J (lower right on the sheet above) was the focus this weekend. I had half of the bed completed but was afraid to tackle the rest because I knew what was lurking underneath.

The bed from hell. These are roots of a certain pesky weed which I can't remember the name. And these are likely those weeds that just multiply when you break the root in two. Sigh. I did my best but at least I know I won't be planting any carrots here! I first sowed one more row of shelling peas just in case 132 plants aren't enough. Seriously, they say 170 for a family of four. We'll just see!

Then onto the weedy bed. It will be a guess just how much sun this bed gets in the full summer. I think a fair amount. There's a cedar tree just south of it that blocks out most of the sun in the winter.

I hope to save this leftover chard in the foreground. I transplanted two spinach plants over and planted two more squares. The bed will also have lettuces, radishes, kale, beets and flowers. And a surprise awaited me in the compost pile. A rapidly growing rhubarb plant which I did my best to salvage for another bed that already had the rhubarb.

I suppose in my haste of weeding beds last fall I chucked it before I knew what it was. We'll see if it survives although I'm sure any plant would be happier growing in pure compost.

January in the garden

My weekends are being filled up with bed preparation and future planting days. Although I didn't account for getting the flu last weekend. I managed to prepare one bed until my husband made me stop. Sure enough, I overdid it. And now I'm behind on everything, artwork and other responsibilities included. Oh well, I feel good about what I accomplished out there. This is one of the beds ready to go. It will contain onions, spinach, carrots, calendula, basil, oregano, peas and some tomatoes based on the square foot gardening method. My daughter had fun pushing the onion sets into the soft soil.

Planting onion sets in a square foot grid

I've been looking to other local places to see what they've been putting in the ground this month, looking through the farmer's almanac as well as my local master gardener website recommendations. It's all spinach and peas this month and into early February. The Farmer's Almanac seems to me a little early though.

Charming french bistro chairs I found at Maison Reve before it closed, sniff, sniff.

I was able to transplant the remaining stray chard plants as well as some spinach and lettuce I started in the fall into my first prepared bed. I could have spaced them closer, I'll see how much extra weeding it will involve. The spinach will be thinned once they get used to the transplant.

 Chard, spinach, lettuce, radishes, shelling peas and Nigella will live here.
I created a little straw path for pea picking. Next year I will garden more intensely if needed.

The garlic I planted in the fall is growing well. There are a few onion survivors popping up next to some of the garlic but I'll just pull that garlic sooner for some nice green garlic to throw on the grill.

 Garlic under the apple tree with a great resting chair
for when I need a break.

A site plan, sigh, I have about four going right now and am trying to figure out the best way to work. One on the computer, two on grid paper, and one on many different pages of a notebook. For some reason, the notebook technique is winning but it looks impossibly confusing!

And finally, the mushroom compost has arrived! I learned about this compost from reading the previous owner's blog. Now I understand why the soil in the beds and under the fruit trees is so amazing. Why fix what isn't broken!

Every Gardener's January: Reading

I've spent most of this month reading up on edible gardening and am now in the planning stages of what to plant and where. There are several books that have stayed by my side this January. My most used reference is How to Grow more Vegetables by John Jeavons. I kept seeing this book in stores but felt I had enough garden books already. When I realized the previous owners used this as a reference, I knew it would be a worthy addition. It explains a lot about why my garden is planted the way it is. And now that I understand, I can't imagine changing it.

I've had a really old, dog eared copy of Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew on my shelf for years. I would love to have the new edition, shown here, with much better pictures but the text seems the same so I can't really justify the upgrade.

Square foot gardening is kind of a revolution gone mainstream theory around gardening. In addition to maximizing space, it saves gardening time by reducing weeds and hopefully pests by using companion planting.

For the eye candy and pure inspiration, I love looking through From Seed to Skillet by Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger. The gardens featured are beautiful. I love his recommendation on varieties, a lot of my favorites and a few that are new to me.

And while I was at Baker Creek, I had to buy their new book, The Heirloom Life Gardener by Jere & Emilee Gettle. This offers in-depth descriptions about the heirloom seeds they sell.

 

I've got a plan now for the garden, based on all of these books which will be coming soon.