Hard working... but finally seeing some beauty.

So I have spent the last two days working my tail off to get my garden ready for planting. I purchased some middle of the road quality landscape fabric to help prevent weeds, warm the soil, and retain moisture. I've used this fabric for the last 2 years with good success. It really cuts down on the weeding and watering...mainly the weeding. :) I don't think anything is more frustrating than to have all my hard work squeezed out with ugly grass and weeds. I treat my plants like they are my babies..I give them lots of love and attention, and my husband laughs at me when I go out during the summer to just stand around and admire my fruits and vegetables. He thinks I am absolutely nuts, but he doesn't complain too much when he is munching away on fresh cherry tomatoes or squash.

Anyway... I divided up my 10 ft by 28 ft space to give me 4 beds that are 4 ft by 10 ft and one bed that is 4 ft by 7 ft. I used cedar mulch in the 2 ft walkways between beds. One of the reasons I divided the space like this instead of using it all for planting is that it makes it easier to reach all of my plants to tend them. I have used a square foot grid with jute twine to try my hand at square foot gardening (my adaptation-in the ground vs. raised bed). Here are a couple of pictures of my garden before I planted. I think it is kindof beautiful. :) I almost hated to start cutting into the landscape fabric... ALMOST. ;)




After getting everything laid out and ready, I planted 100 onions on one row (5 plants in 10 squares), 18 onions in two other squares (to harvest early as green onions), and 20 cloves of garlic.


The weather forecast says there should be rain on Wednesday, so I plan on getting some peas, carrots, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower in the ground during the next two days.

My garlic should be ready in July, and my onions should be ready in May.
:) Here we go garden! It gets really busy now. :) LOTS to do...sure wish there was more time in the day!