Wasn’t the weather fantastic this weekend? My yard called to me, begging to be cleared, to be made beautiful and fruitful this year. Last weekend, I met with Kelly and Brent to talk about preparing what is now a lawn for a metamorphosis into a vegetable garden. Brent is a master gardener and both Kelly and I are novices. I’m hoping to get regular updates from Brent & Kelly and we can enjoy our Victory Gardens together! This year I have some serious goals for the garden: (1) to grow vegetables (and flowers, for Rosie) from seed, (2) to prepare of an area in my yard that’s 6’x14’ for planting, (3) to stay on top of the weeds and watering. We're on our way with #1 already, touched on #2 & #3.Earlier in the week, Monkeyrotica and I agreed to set aside Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to Noon for family gardening time. I put Monkey in charge of the compost pile and the kids are going to help with planting, watering and weeding (Dash wants to Kill Some Weeds!). Fully aware that the kids will lose interest in all that within 5 minutes, I am putting myself in charge of planting, watering and weeding.
So what went on at the Strings' this weekend? Well, we:
• planted our seeds in mini-greenhouses
• cleared the weeds in the garden bed (I enlisted some area boys to move the rocks, coming soon)
• weeded and mulched the raspberry beds
• generally cleared out a lot of dead and overgrown stuff
• raked some of the ignored leaves from last Fall
After some shopping at the local hardware store for some materials (mini-greenhouses, sprinkler, hose, wheelbarrow), we pretty much were in the yard all Saturday and Sunday. Rosie and I took a couple of bike rides around the neighborhood for breaks in the lovely weather, and there was a visit from Auntie M. on Sunday morning (Auntie M helped with bagging leaves, brought back some childhood leaf-bagging memories). The end result is what you see in the photo of my curb (at top, lots of bags and brush). I’m so excited about this! I want to get back in the garden right away.
WOW. Looking good!
ReplyDeletewe're gardening this year too! My only unsolicited advice ... reconsider the 6 x 14 ... everything I've read says 4' at the widest. You can reach 2' (so if you have access from both sides, 4'). You want it to be easy (ish) to weed and maintain so you don't curse it's name in July :)
ReplyDeleteCatherine, I'm using the "square-foot gardener" method, which purports to make any size home-garden manageable. I'll be sticking to what ever they say, as I absolutely do not want to be cursing my victory garden! Come July, I want to be yelling with joy holding up a big V symbol!
ReplyDeleteYes! I am getting ready to start my spring garden. My nephew pulled the remainder of my beets (12). Still have tons of Swiss Chard. Let me know if you need any pointers! Am only doing 3 kinds of squash, white corn, bok choy and more swiss chard.
ReplyDeletexo,
Andrea, I will probably need pointers! I still have your cell# and may be phoning you! I have seedlings for tomatoes, jalapenos, parsley, mint, basil, and canteloupes (vegetable/herbs); and Rosie picked out bachelors button, cosmos, sweetpea, sunflowers, and larkspur for her flower garden.
ReplyDeleteOh, almost forgot the collards! I have lots and lots of collards sprouts. So, so many collards sprouts...
ReplyDelete