I've been very excited to get to gardening time. I learned a LOT last year - one of which was the differences between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes. Sure, I heard the term when I started watching youtube videos on growing tips. But this was AFTER I had bought and planted all of my tomato plants. I had no idea the growth heights indeterminate tomatoes could go to - I mean really, my garden last year was a mass of tomato jungle! So this year it was no decision - I was going to get determinates and save myself the headache of building 7 foot trellises.
So in order to get the kinds of tomatoes I was looking for, I needed to strike pretty quickly and get the tomatoes when they were available. While I was waiting in anticipation for nurseries to put out any tomato that wasn't indeterminate, I starting getting my garden area prepped and ready for the tomatoes.
This wasn't a simple task. Last year, I built a cinder block "box" area with the intention of doing raised garden beds for my strawberries. It didn't happen. Instead, I simply lined my strawberries in their pots within the boundaries of this box. This year, I wasn't sure if I wanted to fool with strawberries again, being that last year's strawberry output was a little disappointing. But in the end, I figured I'd give it one more go, and fix up the patch like I wanted.
What I have is a low garden bed that is in between a bed and inground. This year, I added fresh soil and compost, put the strawberries in ground and mulched around each plant in the hopes of avoiding berry rot from the growing berries being on the wet ground. It really looks great. And so far, I've seen all but 2 of my plants growing strawberries.
Next, I went over and over and OVER my plans for the main garden area. It's not really very large - pretty much only 10 X 10 or so. Last year I had a mix of peppers and tomatoes. The peppers were started too late - in June, so we only had one decent harvest. I figured this year, I didn't want to hassle with them, even though I was going to be planting much earlier this year. I rechecked the correct spacing between tomato plants and decided that I would just fill the space with tomatoes. And after much, much driving myself crazy with research, plant garlic and basil between the rows of tomatoes.
Getting the main garden patch prepped was actually pretty easy. I added more soil and fresh compost and used my cultivator to turn it under and voila! It was ready to go. As of last week, all the tomatoes are in the ground and have already grown a little bit since I planted them. I hope using my smaller regular tomato cages are going to be okay with my mostly Roma determinates. I need to get a few more cages and we are all set.
I haven't yet planted the garlic. I've researched how you prep your seed bulbs and it's on the docket to do very soon. The basil is a tale for another post!
I had planned to build boxes with untreated wood and sealed with linseed oil for the squash. In the end, I wasn't able to get them built in time, and just have reused the containers from last year. They worked great - it was my support for each plant that was a disaster! This year I will build trellises, but that is still an upcoming project.
The squash was a little stressful. Admittedly, I got mine in June last year, so I would imagine that I started my search a little early. I still had time - and in face still have time - to start from seeds, but I'd rather not. After more than one failed town trip and quite a few nurseries coming out empty handed, I found what I needed at Menards, of all places! So this year I am doing 3 of those, 1 zucchini, 1 cucumber and 1 pickling cucumber. The cucs I have yet to figure out where I am putting them, but I do know they will be in containers.
I'd like to grow some pumpkins. I discovered they can be done with a trellis, if you go with a smaller pumpkin. I got some seeds for the sugar pumpkin. Which is ideal, as my plan is really to eat them. I hope I can build a box for them, we will just have to see. I need to get something figured out pretty quickly as I need to start the seeds.
Another thing I am trying this year is lettuce. Right now, my plants are all in pots and doing well. For how long, I'll find out! I've had them for at least 2 weeks, maybe a little longer. I'm planning on doing carrots, and I need to sow those seeds pretty quickly.
My plan of doing green beans is pretty much out at this point. I bought 4 snap pea plants, and now they are taking the spot where I was going to put the pole beans. I'm still not ready to give up on the beans, but I should probably just accept the defeat and move on.
I do plan to do potatoes. I need to prep the seed potatoes and get them started. I'm going to try the container method and hope for the best.
Annd, I went just a little crazy with the herbs this year! I got things I hadn't tried before and we will see how well they do. I already mentioned that I would do a specific basil post - maybe I'll post about the different experience with the herbs. I have a lot more garden talk to blog about - I'm just kind of doing a quick recap. I regret not blogging about each step of the way instead of just posting it on facebook. Blogging can be a fun "journal" sort of experience, much more in depth than facebook can be!
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