Stella’s community garden: the plot thickens!
Friday, April 18, 2008
(Apologies for the punny headline; I couldn’t resist! -ed)
I’m getting incredibly excited about the garden experiment. I’ve been officially accepted as a new member at the community garden and I have marked the first workday on my calendar. I think we will be tilling that day.
The plot will be $10 for a 10 x 20 plot. I busted out the tape measure this morning to get an idea of how big that is, and I am very happy. It turns out to be larger than my living room at the apartment. I had it in my head that the plot would be smaller than that.
Almost all of my tomatoes have sprouted, as well as most of my bell peppers. That’s going to be a lot of tomatoes. It’s a good thing my girls like them.
I am really looking forward to meeting my fellow gardeners. I’m still firmly a gardener wannabe and I have so much to learn. I also just love meeting new people.
I’ve also been working on ideas for my garden at home. I don’t have a lot of space at home, and I want to make it attractive. It’s mostly going to be a container garden. I won’t be limiting myself to edible plants, but I definitely want to include edible plants in my home garden. I’m thinking of replacing some dying bushes in the front of the house with raspberry bushes. I’ve been told that they are pretty easy to grow. I am also planning on having some edible flowers and of course plenty of herbs. I thought it made more sense to grow the herbs at home, since they grow well in containers and it’s nice to be able to use them as soon as you cut them.
I want my back deck to be my oasis from the world. I think it is going to take me a few years to realize my vision for the back deck. The reality is that I have only so much time and money to go around this year.
We got a secondhand outdoor table to replace the one my parents had. The old one was older than me and much to big for the space. Eventually I’d like to build a pergola over the table. I think it would be nice to have the additional shade and I think it would be really pretty. We have some leftover lumber that can eventually be used for that project.
Next week I am going to start hunting for free and cheap containers for my home container garden. I’m sure between craigslist, freecycle, thrift stores and garage sales I’ll be able to find something.
(3) Comments | (0) Trackbacks | Permalink
See more articles by Stella Griffith.
Time to start reading up on your John Jeavons and Double Digging…
http://www.johnjeavons.info/john-jeavons.html
http://www.amazon.com/How-Grow-More-Vegetables-Fruits/dp/1580087965/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208535448&sr=8-1
When we first set up our garden about 3 years ago (3’x15’—thats all we have) we followed a lot of the principles in this book. We produced more stuff than we could eat! Lots of lettuce, tomatoes, and generally had a fresh salad any time we wanted. Getting to “nutritional” foods in the garden is another story, and is quite difficult.
This year, we’re sharing our garden with some friends’ kids, who helped us plan, pick and plant all the vegetables. Unfortunately, kids don’t really like veggies, but they do like the idea of a garden! How funny!
Don’t overdo it on the tomatoes! We’ve found that even one big plant produces far more than we really want, and having two is nice for the variety, but means we need to be giving things away left and right!
ooh steve! thank you for the links! i’m starting a (wee) garden, too, and am kinda clueless ... i really want to grow brussels sprouts as they are my favorite veggie but i hear they are difficult. i’ll try anyhow.
Thanks for the links Steve! I’m thinking I’m going to end up giving away a lot of tomato plants. I do put a ton of farmer’s market tomatoes up for the winter every year, but I still think I have a ridiculous number of tomato plants.
Madge, you are only the second person I’ve ever met who likes brussel sprouts. The first is my little sister. I used to sneak her my portion under the table.
Post a comment