Our Garden
When we moved into our little house in 2007 it was the first time ever that I had a garden.
In 2008 my dear husband built 6 raised beds and we planted vegetables. We did pretty good the first year, having had not much prior
experience with gardening, relying on books and friends. Unfortunately the previous owner had planted bermuda grass and that stuff
is tough to get rid of. So in 2009 we dug up all the beds and put some lining on the bottom to keep the dreaded grass from coming
back. It worked fairly well. We changed a few other things and had a nice crop. We do not use chemicals and fight bugs with homemade soap spray.
2010 was a bit of a desaster, too much rain, bad seeds and too much other stuff going on in our lives left
us with very little to pick but plenty of weeds, the bermuda grass was miraculously replaced by crab grass, lots of it.
Now with a new year ahead of us (2011) we are planning some more changes, definitely buying better seeds, getting organic fertilizer
and maybe planting different kinds of vegetables.
The flowers in our garden and around the house were here before we moved in and include an old rose bush that produces the most fragrant
dark red roses. There is also a lilac bush, two forsythias, several azaleas in various colors and a large camelia bush on the side
of the house. I am looking forward to a new season of gardening and hopefully a nice harvest of fresh vegetables.
Summer 2011 - The fruits of our labor
2011
May
The garden is doing very well. We are picking radishes, lots of lettuce and spinach. The strawberries are beginning
to run out but the raspberries are coming in well. The squash was a bit slow at first but is now coming in well. The peppers
and eggplants are growing well too. It looks like I might have planted a few too many beans, but they are coming up well as are
the peas and carrots.
May 24: I picked the first beets today and a sink full of lettuce. The spinach is getting ready to bolt but is still producing.
Radishes are done for now. Tomatoes and pepper plants are blooming. The herb garden is doing well, a few herbs I tried to grow
from seed did not come up. I guess they got washed away by the torrential rains we had.
April
The garden is planted.
April 25: The garden planting is finished. We planted: beans, peas, radishes, carrots, parsnips, spring onions, lettuce,
spinach, beets, kohlrabi. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers and zucchinis. Strawberries are already ripening and the
raspberries are blooming. Del built me a new herb garden in place of the big tree stump that has completely rotten away due to
all the rain we had last year. In it I planted: rosemary, lavender, chamomille, calendula, peppermint, lemon balm, parsley, sage,
thyme, dill, cilantro, majoram, oregano, chives and nasturtium. I used some of the knowlegde I gained this Spring from reading
several great gardening books and interplanted the tomatoes with basil, the cucumbers with radishes and the zucchinis with nasturtium
and dill to keep the bugs away and improve growth. We also switched from rows to square foot gardening.
February/March
Time for planning and first signs of Spring.
End of March. I am itching to work in the garden and get the seeds into the ground
but it is cold and raining buckets. We were able to use one sunny weekend to spread pine needles around the
azaleas on the side of the house and in the back yard. I hope this will finally get rid of the weeds.
Compost and fertilizer are waiting to be worked into the soil and a new herb garden is in planning. Bean stakes
and tomato cages have been bought and we plan some sort of chicken wire cage over some of the beds to keep the cats
from digging. All we need now are a few nice days, preferably on the weekends.
Here are some photos from previous years.
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