Garden '11

I love to garden. LOVE it!
Okay, I mostly love it.
I do not enjoy weeding...or being out in excruciating heat. But alas, I love the idea of gardening.

This year, we are building raised bed gardens. I am absolutely thrilled because: #1: weeds should no longer be as big of a problem  #2: It's a new project  #3: I got to create a nifty diagram of my new plans.

I will have 6- 4'x4' beds. Instead of using wood, we are using concrete block. (After researching types of woods I discovered that treated woods can leech chemicals into the soil. So we opted to go with concrete.) The neat thing about concrete block is that you can also plant in the holes of the block. Pretty neat, huh?

In addition to building the 6 new raised beds, we are also building 3 PVC pipe arches that will go between the beds. I will have things growing on the arches: grapes, butternut squash, and melons.

We are using a system called "companion gardening" which mixes edible plants and flowers together in a strategic manner that will repel pests without chemicals and support maximum growth and production.
If you would like to check out more about companion gardening check out: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Garden-Companions-Companion-Planting-Chemical-Free/dp/0875968473   I highly recommend this book.

I have started many seeds indoors using my record player as a table. I covered it with black plastic and Kris helped me hang a florescent shop light above my seed trays. Here is a look at the things I am growing this year.

Here are the perennial plants I have in my yard:
1 raspberry bush
3 blueberry bushes
2 blackberry bushes
1 peach tree
1 pomegranate bush/tree?

Here are the things that will be in my raised beds:
perennials
concord and green (forgot type) grapes
strawberries
asparagus
garlic
dill
daisies
annuals
basil
cilantro
parsley
chives
cherokee purple tomatoes
carrots
sparkler radishes
detroit red beets
kentucky wonder pole beans
cantaloupe
butternut squash
rainbow swiss chard
mesclun
red lettuce
kale
onions
sunflowers
marigolds
cosmos
nasturtiums
zucchini
yellow crookneck squash
cucumber

So, there is a beginning rundown of what I have up my sleeves for this year's garden. It may fail horribly, but I'm hoping it will flourish! I would love to feed my family from the garden this year. I'll try to post pictures of the progress later. If you are planning a garden, I'd love to know what you are doing. Let me know what works for you!

Here is a basic layout of the garden. I have an updated version that shows the blocks and what I will be growing inside of them. However, Numbers wouldn't allow me to scale it down onto one sheet. This will at least give you a snapshot of what it will be like.