Gardening Time Again!
I actually started working in my garden more than a month ago, but between the move and other stressors, I have not been good about posting about it. I also haven’t been all that great about working in it, either. However, I have been planting, and things are sprouting. Now that we’ve moved (as of this past weekend) I should have time to work in the garden more regularly.
As soon as we signed the lease on the current house, I planted lettuce seed in two of the four small beds next to the house. The yard here is atrocious, and needs tons of work, but the little garden plot was ready to go. And I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to get decent gardening started. After just about four weeks, I am now seeing the lettuce grow almost right before my eyes. Each time I water it, it seems to shoot up another 1/2 inch. We should be eating salad from that garden in another two weeks, if I keep up with watering. The two other garden plots will get squash in them; they are small, about 3 foot by 3 foot plots, so one squash each should be about all I can have there.
Here is the lettuce right now. Yes, I know there are weeds, and I’m working on it, but there are only so many daylight hours for me to get things done.
There has been a rabbit in the yard pretty regularly. He or she has not yet found my garden, but I’ve put up fencing anyway to keep the furball out. Once it finds my lettuce, it is all over! I do hope to get the squash in by Mother’s Day. It has really outgrown the peat pots.
Over at the community garden, I turned dirt to see how much moisture there is, and was pleasantly surprised. We did have a wet winter and so far a relatively wet spring, although raindrops are now few and far between. Thankfully, we can water as much as we want, and while I haven’t gotten on track with it yet, I should within the next few days. Like I said, now that the move is over, I will have more time to devote to the garden. So far I’ve planted beets, several kinds of lettuce, spinach, kale, and peas. Tonight I spent a good hour at the garden watering and digging up the few weeds that are making a go at coming up. One of my plot neighbors, a young couple that have worked on organic farms and raise seedlings, had some extra kohlrabi plants, and some Savoy cabbage, which I’ve been looking desperately for. So I planted those tonight. I have also laid in a nice layer of alpaca manure that someone brought to the garden. There isn’t a lot of it, but whatever I can put down, I’m putting down. I worked that garden plot pretty good last year, and it needs the boost.
My biggest triumph as of now, however, is my potato experiment. Space in my plot is at a premium – I only have a plot that is 17 x 17 feet. So taking up a big row with potatoes seems like a bad idea. So I planted six seed potatoes in a “basket” I built with fencing and a length of ground cover. I curled the 3-foot-tall metal fencing into a tube about 3 feet across, and wired the ends together. I then set it where I wanted it (in a corner of the garden) and laid in about a four-inch layer of loose green compost. I then poured in and smoothed out 2 cubic yards of purchased organic mulch, and laid in the potatoes (six in all). I covered them with another 2 cubic yards of the purchased organic mulch. I’ve watered it once a week or so for a month. Five of the potatoes have sent up leaves. I’m still hopeful for the sixth. As the plants grow and get above the soil, I will fill in with more organic matter, until the “basket” is filled to about 30 inches high.
Like I said, this is an experiment. I want to grow potatoes, but I need to do it in a way that saves space for other things in the garden. We shall see how this goes. I’m pleased so far.
Here in Colorado, at 5,000 feet, we have a shorter growing season, and have to start later. Our average last frost is about Mother’s Day, and I fully expect there to be a lot of people in the garden getting things into the ground. I will be one of them, as I’ve asked Klown and the girls to get me a gift certificate from the local garden center for Mother’s Day. It will be time for eggplant, and squash, and maybe even some winter squash this year. Yeah, baby!
The potato “basket” before growth.
The potatoes have sprouted!
Beet sprouts.
Kale and Pea sprouts.
Lettuce in the garden.
Spinach in the garden.
Kohlrabi and Savoy cabbage plants in the ground.
My in-house seedlings…ready to hit the garden this weekend! (Basil/Parsley, Crookneck squash, pumpkins and butterstick squash)
Andy,I am an avid gardener, and enjoy the toil that comes along with it. This is the 6th year that I have planted vegetables. I grow things year-round, and have picked spinach, turnips and carrots in February I had to laugh at Erin’s comments, as I have had a similar assessment of my produce when eating some mixed greens I planted.I grew up in a home that had several small garden patches, scattered throughout the small lot the house stood on. My Grandmother insisted that we have a garden. Raising several children through the depression and then through WWII rationing, she always had her victory garden every year, right up until she passed away. It’s not like we had bushel baskets of produce, but it was always nice to go pick some lettuce, a fresh tomato, and a cuccumber or two and have them with dinner. She had me start the seedling in the sun room , plant them in spring, and pull weeds all summer. Funny thing is, I never saw this as work .Last week, the WSJ had an article about the explosion in home gardens, due to the drive to eat organic and rising food costs. Makes sense to me. I just like to grow stuff we can eat. I like learning that comes through trial and error. I hope you and Erin keep it up.
Thrilled with the photos of your garden -in-progress. What kind of potatoes did you choose?