Gardening 2010

I've been putting in most of my gardens in the last two weeks and I'm just about done. I still have a small area to prepare for more tomatoes and I'm adding two grape vines as well.

This is the new garden that a new friend put in for me.

Originally Rosa and I were going to use the whole backyard of a friend's rental property, but time was passing and we didn't have appropriate soil by the end of May. In our heads we both started working on new plans in case that didn't pan out. Although the property was still available in the end, I think we both wanted to be closer to home and maybe that was a bit ambitious anyway.

So, this little plot is quite small, but I packed a lot of vegetables into it. I think the long end is 4' x 15' or so. It's been low maintenance so far because it's all fresh weedless soil and until my seedlings are obvious I don't want to pull anything. Intermingling flowers with veggies and succession planting makes it more difficult to tell what's what.

And this is my own front yard.

The big bush removal created quite a bit of new space but also a lack of privacy for my patio area. The tripods are for cucumbers and beans, and there are three short rows of corn to create that same sheltered area though, once they start to climb. It's a deep garden, so I had to move a bunch of heavy stones to create paths through it. I love the way it looks right now.

one new strawberry patch

Over the winter I tried not to buy many veggies. That may have meant some boring options at the end, but I wanted to be able to estimate our needs a bit better. We ran out of Taber corn just last week I think (I bought one large bag in season last year), brocolli ran out a few months ago, we still have some packages of beans, and the carrots were gone ages ago and those were mostly donated by others anyway. Kale and swiss chard are still in the freezer because other than in pasta and boerenkole (sp?), we don't like those frozen. I love the swiss chard fresh and in pesto though so I'm growing some again. I've only bought a few potatoes, but again ours were mostly donated. My own crop was tiny and will be again this year. Potatoes take space that I still don't have. It's a priority thing.

Wherever there was space I put more carrots this year. Hopefully I can keep us in stock through the winter this time. And I added snap peas and snow peas, hopefully enough to freeze some. And fava beans and cranberry pole beans. I don't actually know if I like those, but I wanted to have a few dried beans this year.

Shallots - I've never grown them before

A few of the things we had to buy all winter were onions, garlic and celery. I'm trying all of those this year and we'll see how that goes. I'm not holding my breath for the celery. I'm also growing a lot of parley this year because I put it in everything.

The boring, rectangular back garden

The raspberries in the alley, with a new fenceboard border and a compost pile waiting for stain

The yard looks terrible from the back. I picked up stain yesterday to redo the fence, and maybe if I make the green on the playhouse match the fence, it won't stick out so much. The kids love it, but there is much about the back yard that I will change once they are all teens.

the right side of the front yard - there's a lot growing there already but you can't see it without walking the paths

A few potatoes and tomatoes under the living room window

A look at the yard last year reminds me how things will all fill in and look great by August.