Monday, January 9, 2012

The beginning of the garden adventure...

So that's it. I got my seed catalogs in the mail and started planning. Of course, the gardening bug bit me a little early. I was still on my Christmas break, which was good since I sat down and immediately began to plan my little garden. Since I'm a little (okay a lot) OCD, I ran outside with my tape measure and determined the exact length and width of my garden. I sat down with several sheets of paper, a straight edge, and a pencil to plan out how I would arrange things this year, then I printed out a little chart, with each square representing one square foot of my garden.
This is the part where I should mention that I've been the proud owner of a garden for 4 years now. Each year it takes up just a little more space in my yard and time in my spring and summer. My first "garden" consisted of a tomato plant that produced nothing, a squash plant, and a zuccini plant (which somehow combined to make interesting and not at all tasty squashinis). I now think of myself as an average gardener, and I'm always looking for ways to utilize the space I have. I tend to want to plant some of everything, so this year I looked into square foot gardening. My husband said a big giant "NO" to the expense of raised beds, so I am going to adapt square foot gardening to fit the space I have. See here for an example of my square foot-yet in the ground instead of above it- garden.
So, what I've decided on is a system of sections that are 4 ft by 8 ft, with walkways in between. I am also going to be adding a small strawberry bed outside my fence, tomatoes in a separate area, and cucumbers along the back fence of my yard. :) I tend to take up whatever area my husband lets me get away with.
I also have a plan in mind to build a small indoor greenhouse shelf system to help me get some seedlings up and running to get a jump start on things and save me some money on tomato and pepper plants. I started some seeds in a couple of Jiffy Professional Greenhouses. I started some Early Girl Tomatoes and Super Sweet 100 Tomatoes in one tray. In another tray, I planted 6 different herbs. Now I just have to wait for them to sprout. Hopefully I can get my lighting shelves built before they do!

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