Tuesday, May 26, 2009

What does your garden grow?

This year my garden includes much more than flowers and my usual salsa garden. It includes a nice variety of vegetables too!

2 great iPhotos

Last year we sowed seeds for radishes, carrots, peas, snap beans, and onions but our lack of planning and veggie-growing knowledge was evident in our harvest. I don't have any photos to document the end result but it wasn't pretty. Those veggies were grown in my "cut flower" garden but space was limited and we ended up with many weeds and volunteer tomato and tomatillo plants all throughout the garden--thanks to our compost. It was "zero fun" weeding so I gave up on that garden after a few attempts. That garden turned into a jungle of weeds and over grown plants and it was time for a new beginning. (BTW, I now avoid putting any tomatoes/tomatillos in the compost bin and I am also selective about which weeds make it in there. We also watered and turned it often during the winter months.)

I am a big fan of "Lasagna Gardening" so in early fall 2008, after I cleaned up the jungle mess and transplanted the perennial flower plants, I covered the garden area with cardboard to smother the weeds, grass, seeds and prepare the ground for a blank slate for 2009.










This is what we have now and I couldn't be happier!132:365/2009

My husband worked very hard to build these two beds and he did a beautiful job! I have never worked with raised garden beds before and so I had a few questions about gardening this way. I was told time after time to look into "Square Foot Gardening". Wow, it's an amazing concept! I'm looking forward to sweet success this year with an abundant harvest.











Here's our list of plants:
Black from Tula Tomatoes
Cherokee Purple Tomato
German Pink Tomato
Gold Medal Tomato
Dragon's Tongue Bean
Golden Zucchini
Verte et Blanc Squash
Golden Zucchini
Double Yield Cucumber
Chioggia Beet
Dragon Carrot
Lettuce Mixture
Pumpkin
JalapeƱo, Serrano, and Anaheim Chile Peppers
Red Bell Pepper
Radish
Watermelon Radish
Green Onion
Green Bell Pepper
Purple Queen Bush Bean
Bush Snap Bean
Snow Peas
Sugar Bon Peas
Sweet Treat Carrot
Basil
Chives
Cilantro
Italian Parsley
Oregano
Lemon Balm

I also included a few flower plants for color and protection too! I hope to transplant some of these to my main flower garden soon.
Marigold
Nastartium
Portulaca
4 varieties of Zinnia
Candytuft

3 comments:

MichelleB said...

It looks great! I'm looking forward to seeing your harvest.

Amanda @ www.kiddio.org said...

We're planning to add some raised beds to our front yard (!!) next year, so I'll be interested to see how yours come out! Here's what we have this year:

*sugar snap peas (the favorite to eat straight from the plant)
*haricots verts (french green beans)
*cantaloupe, cucumbers (growing on a trellis)
*tomatoes (five)
*peppers (five)
*lettuces and spinach
*broccoli
*turnips
*beets (kids' FAVORITE!)
*multi-colored carrots
*butternut and acorn squash
*summer squashes (incl. zucchini)
*watermelon (wish us luck)
*pumpkins

Our harvest last year was pretty puny too--the late frost and my less-than-consistent watering most certainly had something to do with it :) Can't wait to see your sprouts!

Kelly Todd said...

Hi there! I connected to your blog through the fancy tiger blog. You have made some really cute projects! I also live in the denver area and am always looking for people to get together with to sew and I'm a HUGE fan of Fancy Tiger. I have a couple of friends and we try to get together at least once a month if you ever want to join us :)