While I realize I just did a garden update only two weeks ago so much has changed already that I feel the need for another, so here we go.

Chuck has been hard at work mulching all the gardens and going through 3 cubic yards of the stuff. He has also been working on taking down trees and building our deck. We still have a few more things to mulch we will probably pick up another yard soon. Our soil is very poor and lacks hardly any nutrients so mulch is pretty much our lifesaver right now. I have even had to replant peas because half of them would not grow in our soil. As you can see below our yard is kind of a huge mess, this is what progress looks like people!

Our blueberry bushes are flowering already! Since this is their first year I plan to pick off the blooms so that it promotes more root growth. Hopefully this will make for a healthier plan next year.

The raised beds are doing much better. The early seeds that I planted have already come up and needed to be thinned which is super exciting. I also put in a few colder weather starter plants, such as cabbage broccoli and kale. Wherever I’m getting my kale seeds is just not working out for me. This is the second year in a row that they did not come up at all. This year I broke down and bought a pack of kale starts to put in their place. Along with the veggies I picked up some herbs including dill, oregano, thyme, lavender and tarragon. I also planted beans, more lettuce, and some cucumber seeds. While it may be customary to plant some of these things a little later in the year I got excited and wanted to get them in before we mulched. If we do happen to get a cold snap, which I’m kind of doubting, I have everything ready to protect them if need be.

We were able to get all of the thinning that Momma Chuck gave us into the ground before the mulching, along with some pretty little flowers. Things are looking a little tiny, withered and sad right now, but once they settle in and start growing I get the feeling that they are all going to look beautiful! I’m totally excited to see how the year pans out.

How are your gardens looking?

I decided to separate house and garden updates because I have so much to talk about in the garden, and while house projects are happening they are happening at a bit slower pace.

In early April I started some cooler weather plants, such as lettuce, radish, chard and peas, which have slowly been making their appearance as the days go by. Because I planted them so early I used a bit of plastic stretched over the top of the boxes and held down by some wood we had laying around to help fend off any frost. For reference I used 3.5 mm plastic bought in the paint section of Wal-Mart (it’s similar to this). The flower bulbs and garlic that I planted last year also made their appearance and despite a late season snow storm bloomed beautifully throughout the yard. When I planted them I had followed the package instructions on spacing, but after seeing them come in I think this fall I will dig them up and place them closer together. Most of the other gardens I’ve seen have them much closer together than they currently are in my garden.

In addition to these few starts chuck and I planted 10 blueberry bushes along the property line to the right of the house. Hopefully in a few years these guys will be producing berries and grow up enough to be a nice privacy hedge as well.

We also have a bunch of thinnings that came from Momma Chucks garden that need to get in the ground. She gave us everything from raspberries, to roses and lilies so it’s going to be fun to find spots for all these babies.

I would have liked to get a bit more done over Mothers Day weekend, but unfortunately my shoulder has really been bothering me and the doc told me to take it easy. I might have to have Chuck help me out this week to get everything in on time as well as fill the rest of my garden boxes with dirt for summer plantings like tomatoes and peppers.

I’m hopping I’ll be able to get a few more veggie seeds in also since that shouldn’t bother my shoulder at all. Things like beans, more lettuce, maybe some cabbage and other things.

Recently I at The Blog Connect Conference that I attended the topic of gardening came up and I got a lot of questions about where to start, what grows in containers and the like. Though these may seem like simple questions with simple answers to me they are so much more. These questions and their answers are important. I think everyone should garden (ahem remember this 1000+ word post?) so I want to take the time to seriously think about and answer these questions.

Starting a garden doesn’t have to be hard or daunting, sometimes all you need is a place to start. So let’s talk about that.

 First off what vegetables do you eat? Knowing what foods you like and are willing to actually eat is important because growing a bunch of kale that are going to eat and is just going to go bad is not worth your time.

Next we have to talk about space and set up. Are you in an apartment? Do you have a yard? Can you rent a community growing space? Seriously think about your options here. If all you have is a window sill, be realistic about that, you can still grow things, but it will be on a smaller scale or plants that like shade.

Let’s assume we are designing a garden plan for the typical apartment dweller that only has a window. I would suggest starting with herbs, leaf lettuce or sprouts. All of these things are fairly easy to grow and take up little space, for herbs and leaf lettuce you can buy whole plants or start from seeds. For growing sprouts I suggest this method.

I always like suggest starting with leaf lettuce for first time vegetable gardeners because it grows fast and produces more than one harvest. Meaning you can cut it back for a salad and a few days later it has already grown back. If you eat salads daily or even weekly this is a great place to start. If you want to start eating more salads this is also a great place to start because you want to cut back the lettuce before it goes to see and eat it before it goes bad, so it can be considered a motivator as well (see what I did there?).

Those with a porch or deck space could try adding a tomato plant, snap peas, or green beans. Pole (green) beans are great because they will climb up banisters and pergolas to provide shade as well as beans.

For anyone who has access to a backyard or community growing space I would definitely take advantage of that but remember to start small. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when your garden starts producing. Honestly I think a 4×4 garden which provides you with 16 square feet of gardening space is more than enough for a first timer. The photo below represents a simple garden plan for a first timer using the square foot method.

Remember that the plants in this garden are simply my suggestion. I fully encourage you to switch up the vegetables listed here. Love pesto? Double or even triple the amount of basil plants. Like spinach in your smoothie? Then grow lots of that. Remember grow things you will actually eat.

As far as actually planting the vegetables, you can follow the instructions on the back of the seed packet, or talk to the gardener where you buy your plants for watering, sunlight needs and container size. You can also always email me (sweetlovginger@gamil.com)  I’m happy to help anyone who is interested in starting to grow their own vegetables.

Like anything else in life starting a garden is a learning experience. It takes trial and error, and not everything is going to work for you the first time around. Stick with it, you will figure it out and it will be infinitely rewarding.

Some of my favorite garden resources:

http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/

Motherearthnews.com

http://www.bhg.com/

Last year I had big plans for the garden and while I got a lot done I have come to realize that building the garden of my dreams is going to be a slow and steady process with lots of little baby steps.

Lately the unseasonably warm weather has sparked my interest in gardening a bit early this year. Over the weekend I started making moves for this year’s garden, ordering blueberry bushes, and planting some early cold-weather crops. We finally pruned the apple trees (better late than never), removed a number of half dead ever green plants from the front garden and finished filling the rest of the garden beds. I was even able to talk chuck into building me another set of garden boxes for the 12 tomato plants I’m going to plant this year.

Above is the tentative vegetable garden plan (yes its in excel, I’m a nerd). It’s not set in stone yet because I’m never sure what’s going to grow well or not but I like to have an outline ready before I plant. No one wants to end up with a million beets and nothing else.

I also have yet to figure out my herb garden plans since our deck/patio design keeps changing as we actually live in the house. I’m guessing it will still have to be a raised bed of some sort because our soil is all sand and really lacking nutrients. This year will most likely just be a potted herd garden like I have had in the past. Once the deck is built I’ll have a better idea of what I can work with.

Potted Herbs 2014

Last year’s herb garden included chives, thyme, oregano, mint, rosemary, basil and parsley. This year I’d like to add lemon balm, sage, lavender, Echinacea, German chamomile, Cuban oregano, comfrey, nettle, yarrow, cilantro, tarragon, garlic chives and possibly a few others. I know that this list sounds pretty large, but many of these are perennials that I can take pieces of while my friends or family are thinning their own gardens. The only real difficulty here is then finding a place for them all, once they are planted many will just come back each year with little effort on my part. Similarly with the wild leeks, Jerusalem artichoke, horseradish, and raspberries that we will hopefully get from some family.

Some of the herbs will be planted in the flower garden, since they are flowing herbs, and the front flower gardens are in need of some help. I was able to plant some tulips and daffodils last year that have started to come up, but I will defiantly need to plant a few more perennial flowers to really fill them in. I’m going to look for some roses, and clematis first off. I also have some wild flower seed mix leftover from a never completed wedding project that I’m planning on sprinkling in some parts of the yard for color and to help the bees.

Obviously I’m super excited already about my garden so please tell me about your garden plans. I would really really love to hear more about gardens!