This year has been a strange one in regards to our garden. The weather didn't allow us to get things done until a lot later than usual. Plus I took a totally different approach this year (especially since I knew that I was the one who would be doing 99% of the work this time around) and made sort of a modified raised bed/square foot garden plan. Honestly.....I pretty much made it up as I went along. After seeing how my neighbors did their garden with a similar raised/sunken path design, I adopted that for mine. Then when I planted I still tried to follow the basic guidelines of square foot gardening. I'm not doing as many of the vining plant vertically like they do in square foot gardening, but I'm still using the spacing as a guideline. I was thrilled to get ahold of some straw bales for free (thank you Craigslist!) to help keep weeds & mud down to a minimum. Now that some of the seeds I planted are actually sprouting, I plan to mulch a little heavier with the straw. So here's where I'm at right now:
The closest rows (the skinnier ones) are my corn rows. (Heh...corn rows....) I just got those planted (yes, I know I'm frightfully late, but at least I got them in) and I plan to companion plant the beans next to the corn once it gets about a foot or two high. My poor little cherry tomatoes are in the first wide row after that--they suffered quite a bit when we had bad winds the day I planted them. Also in that row is bell peppers and a few watermelon plants at the end of the row that I plan to let meander through the rest of the plants on that row. Oh and on the opposite end of that, where the wire fencing is, I planted peas.
Look! They're just starting to sprout!
Beyond that is the row with egg plant, zucchini and cucumbers, which are also just emerging from the soil. See, there they are!
Then in the last regular row I have my Big Boy tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and a few honey dew melons at the end (which, like the watermelon, will be allowed to wander through the other plants.) The raised beds in the railroad ties so far have onions, carrots & lettuce. I had also intended to plant garlic and herbs but have been a little preoccupied with the rest of the garden. Hopefully I'll get around to it soon.
Oh, see what I'm doing there? That's new this year too. I'm trying not to stress too hard about being all formal about the garden. If I get it planted, good for me! If I don't, I'll be sure to plan better next year. This year is all about experimenting and learning what works best for me. And trying not to be too worried about everything perfectly in it's place.
I still haven't given up the tape measure though....gotta use that when I space my seeds. Sorry, can't let go of that one...
Baby steps....
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