My Garden 2.0

I did my very first garden in 2012, see HERE, and this year I’m doing another….

New gardening space, new method, all a little spur of the moment but I got it all done in one day. It didn't start out as pretty as my first garden since it was a complete spontaneous decision but I believe that my plants are going to be strong and better tasting.  At the end of March / beginning of April, when spring first hit us, I was running errands and had budgeted 80 bucks to spend at Lowe's for potted plants for the front door and well…veggies. I walked out 150 bucks later and had all that plus bird seed and potting soil. I wasn’t able to plant my veggies that weekend but I did get on the ball the following Sunday. I had it all planned out and thought that this was going to be a perfect project that wouldn’t take no time…well Hendrik pretty much had to do my entire project because my so called plans sort of unraveled before my eyes. My tiller wouldn’t start, then the tractor broke but finally he finished up the breaking ground/tilling part and I was able to plant. All Sunday afternoon I worked my fingers bloody and black and got all my little babies in the ground. With a little load of chicken poo that my honey spread for me they are going to shoot up in no time, especially after all the rain we’ve had.

 

I ended up planting a total of 20 tomato plants, 32 bell peppers, and 10 squash/zucchini. If you refer back to my first garden HERE you will see that I had more of a variety of vegetables like watermelon, cucumbers, jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, bell peppers, squash, okra, and zucchini but seeing what all I used most of and still do when cooking I thought it best to plant less variety but more quantity so I can pack the freezer for later in the year.

Seeing all that was done over a month and half ago several dramatic gardening events have happened.  Two weeks into my planting before my babies got a good start a light frost came and turned every one of my plants brown.  I just knew they were goners but I hung on to a small sliver of hope and just decided to let them hang out and see if MAYBE they would come back.  Well folks about two or three weeks later I drove by the garden on my way to the shop and BAM!  Under the weeds and grass over-growth were ALL my plants thriving.  That weekend I pulled a lot of the grass so I could see my plants better and since have been working every day after work to totally eliminate the grass and weeds.  My tomatoes have cages, my squash have flowered, and my bell peppers are fixing to start producing.

Here is a small update of when I started pulling grass and weeds. I have over half cleaned up NOW and hope to finish the rest this week.

 

 

I'm so excited that my garden hung on through my spontaneous decisions, frost, and lack of tending but I've turned it around and look forward to harvesting constantly throughout the summer and into fall.