Garden Planting!

Hello Everyone,

It's finally dry/warm enough to plant! Last week was terrible - rain every day and low temperature. The rain stopped Monday night so the ground will be dry enough to work. It suppose to stay sunny & warm until Saturday, when there's a small chance of rain for part of the day.

So, what will we be planting?

Acorn Squash, Amaranth (grain with pretty burgundy flower), Pole Beans, Wax Beans, Beets, Carrots, Corn, Pickling Cucumbers, Regular Cucumbers, Garlic, Onion, Peanuts, Peas, Potatoes, Quinoa (ancient grain), Radish, Shallots, Watermelon, Zucchini

There will also be flowers around the edges to help keep bugs out (and for eating) - marigolds, nasturtium, geraniums.

Yes, there's a lot of variety. It's an experiment to see what will grow in this climate.

We're also setting up an irrigation system using a rain barrel. Lee Valley Tools has all sorts of ideas. Basically, the rain barrel will be the predominate water source but we can also fill it up with the hose at the garden if there's not enough rain. We'll run a drip hose system to water the plants so we don't need to be up there so often just to water.

I've got two different layouts of garden plans. One has the rain barrel in the middle and there's a main line that heads west. This connects to a north/south line. From the north/south line, the drip lines will connect to it. I think this format is the simpliest form although we lose a row of food.

The other way has the rain barrel in the corner with the north/south line running down. The drip lines connect to it and on the first line, we loop it back toward the rain barrel to get the last short two rows beside the barrel. The problem I see with this one is the loop row may not get enough water.

The other system also allows more space for flowers. We can plants marigolds along the north/south main line hose that's far enough apart to let you walk, but close enough for me to get more flowers. The flowers should still get enough water from the drip lines but if not, there will be space enough to water them by hand. It would be difficult to plant vegetables there (unless maybe onions & garlic since there's little space to spread out. This watering system is another experiment.

We should get most of it in tonight and the rest in tomorrow. I couldn't find potatoes last night at Walmart so we may need to do some searching. I already have acorn squash, cucumber, watermelon and corn sprouted.

We're going to keep the tomato plans at our respective homes as I don't think they're hardy enough to handle the garden. I transplanted my seedlings last from my 9x13 plastic container (I can store baking again!) into little flower pots to help develop their root system. Mike rather likes the smell of tomato plants but he was on his best behavior last night and didn't attack any. I ended up buying herbs as the seeds I planted aren't doing anything. They're in a container so I can bring them in this fall.

Have a great day!