Flowers, flowers everywhere.

It seems like July is the time of year that my garden has the most blooms so far, though we are still adding to the garden as time goes by. Right now we have lilies galore, a few waining daisies, some echinacea, and hydrangea. This is only the summer portion of the garden, there are still a few more blooms to come and I hope to add a few more late summer and fall blooms to brighten up the garden in fall.

In the vegetable garden, there has been a lot of change as well.

As far as harvests go we are finally starting to get some stuff. A lot of the early vegetables that I planted were hammered by bunnies, so we were not able to get much more than a few radishes and lettuces. Because of this, there is a lot of extra space in the garden that I haven’t yet decided what to do with. I may try to plant some more carrots or beets, for a fall crop. I may also wait until towards the end of summer and plant some more lettuce & spinach.

We already had our first crop of broccoli and the turnips are starting to fatten up for harvest. What beets survived the bunnies are also starting to fill out. This weekend I pulled up the garlic and hung it to dry. This is my first time growing garlic and I’m really excited to try it out.

As far as everything else goes, we are pretty much playing a waiting game, everything is just about ready or only a few weeks out. The tomatoes are green, beans are starting to form, cucumbers are showing up (and taking over). It’s been hot and it’s going to continue to be hot and sunny for the next few weeks which is just what the garden needs. I’m looking forward to a much more exciting post next month.

 

 

Ok so you’ve planted a bunch of seeds and they are all growing pretty good. The only thing is that now they are all too close to really thrive, so it’s time to cull them. It sounds morbid I know and it always kind of hurts my heart a little to end their sweet little lives so soon, but for the good of the mass it must be done.

Why must it be done? Because if plants start to grow too close together then they will not fill out. Things like radishes and carrots will not bulb up on the bottom, cabbages, and cucumbers will not fill out, and whatever vegetables you are able to get from the garden will be thin and spindly. Giving the plants the proper amount of space gives them the most yield.

Here’s how I do it: Wait until the first true leaves appear. Not all of the seeds will produce true leaves at once, making the choice of which ones to let go easier. Using gardeners shears cut the extra seedlings close to the ground.

Side note: I tend to thin the seeds twice, letting some get a little bigger begore trimming them. I do this because not all seedlings survive so the extras are a backup, but also because I then will have larger microgreens later on without harming the plants I want to save.

Once the seedlings have been culled the question becomes what to do with all the trimmed seedlings?

option 1: leave the trimmed seedlings in the garden bed to work as a light mulch or compost.

Option 2: toss them in the compost pile.

Option 3: Use them in the kitchen as microgreens.

Personally, I prefer the third option. Adding microgreens to smoothies, salads, and to garnish a plate is ideal since it means we get the added benefits of all the good stuff those little guys have.

 

We are trying something new today. I thought it might be fun to do a video tour of the garden in June instead of just slapping some pictures up and talking at you. This is the first video I have ever done so it’s far from perfect.

 

What I didn’t show on the video was the sad peas the mostly died, possibly from lack of attention while we were away or the terrible soil. We put some new soil down and I replanted the peas with hopes of actually getting some this year. Fingers crossed. ur little blueberries have started to show up, even despite the bunnies best attempt to chomp them down.

Another thing not shown is our little blueberry bushes. They have started to show fruit and should be ripe in a couple of weeks. Now we just have to try to beat the bunnies to them.

I’m pretty happy with how the garden is coming along, and looking forward all the fresh produce to come.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been doing my best lately to get you guys excited about gardening, sharing my own updates, helping you get started and telling you why you should start a garden if you don’t already have one. After a few comments and discussions I thought it might be a good idea to give you some garden plans. Once you start doing some research about gardening it’s pretty easy to fall down the rabbit hole of information, You know when you realize that certain veggies do or do not grow well next to each other, and that certain things need more sunlight while others need way less of it.

It can get pretty overwhelming pretty quickly, I know.

To help boost your confidence in starting a garden I put together a few different types of small gardens. I kept things simple and pretty straightforward using what I have learned goes well together under difference conditions. All of these gardens are relatively small but I truly think that it’s important to start small. This keeps you excited and stops you from getting overwhelmed in the beginning.

The first three gardens shown above are all 4’x4’ or 16 square feet. I think this is the perfect size garden to start out with because it gives you plenty of room to try a variety of plants but isn’t so big that you will get lost. All of these gardens use the square foot method of gardening since this is my preferred method right now.

• The design furthest to the right is a standard kitchen garden that gets roughly 8 hours of sunlight a day. It is set up so that the vine beans will not shade out the other plants. I think it’s also important to mention that oregano and chives are perennials and will come back every year if they are not dug up. Finally, I placed carrots and onions (beets, and turnips in the shade garden also) toward the middle of the garden because they take longer to come to harvest while many of the others will be ready to harvest sooner. This prevents the gardener from having to reach over other plants to harvest.
• The Salsa garden is the perfect garden for areas that get a lot of sun and are very dry. Again the tomato plants are placed at the back of the garden to prevent over shading the other plants. In this garden, there are no perennial plants however garlic is a nonstandard plant for this garden. Garlic can be planted in the fall or the spring. Fall planting typically yields a larger bulb, so spacing for fall planted garlic should be 4 per square foot, and spring planted garlic could be 9 per square foot since it will produce a smaller bulb size. Similarly different varieties of garlic will produce different size bulbs so be sure to read the package instructions.
• The shaded kitchen garden is designed for those who only get 4 or less hours of sunlight. Many of the plants in this garden will thrive in cooler shaded areas whereas they will be hindered by a hot and sunny location. Again Chives are a perennial and will come back every year.

The gardens shown above are unique types of gardens that are perfect for small spaces and apartments.

• The deck border garden is meant to be on a deck or fire escape. This prevents the gardener from having to build a trellis for the peas since the railing can be utilized.
• The corner herb garden is perfect for a first time gardening since more than half of the plants are perennials. The only annual plants in this garden are the basil, parsley, and cilantro. Dill, rosemary, and tarragon can also be perennials depending on your location. Here in the northeast, they are typically annuals, but on mild winters, I have seen both tarragon and dill come back the following year.

The final two gardens that I designed are perennial hedges or trees. These are some of the best gardens to start with because they are the lowest maintenance. They are great to separate you from your neighbors or to tuck in along the edge of the property. While not everything in these gardens is edible they can still provide food and pretty flowers while being almost no work at all.

• The first garden is a small fruit tree guild. A guild is simply a grouping of plants that are meant to benefit each other as they grow. All of the plants in this garden are perennials, meaning once they are planted they will come back every year. The only input that’s really needed here is weeding, mulching and occasionally thinning out the overcrowded plants. The only really suggestion that I have is to plant this with the strawberries facing the sun. Lupine can be very tall and may shade out the other plants. It does however, make a beautiful background for this garden or along a fence or home. The edible plants in this garden are the fruit tree, nasturtiums, salvia, clover, and strawberries.
• The second garden is a blueberry hedge guild. The edible plants in this one are the blueberry bushes, cloudberries, and parsley.

Any of these gardens would be a great place to start your gardening journey. They are of course subjective to your own personal tastes and I would be happy to help anyone design a garden or answer any questions.

Happy gardening!