  |
Pssst, hover your cursor over the garden drawing
Yo Guys! It’s Veggie Garden Planning season! Planning the coming year’s veggie garden with the kids has become my ultimate favorite sign of spring. Finn and I started this tradition four gardening seasons ago back in 2012. Gus was merely a little-dude-baby back then and Finn and I did this as a way to have Mom & Finn time. Although Finn is not the worlds biggest vegetable fan, he has always been very enthusiastic when it comes to tending and cultivating a garden. This year Gus is old enough to participate too. It does my heart good to see these two boys get so excited about growing things! Gus would like it if we could also plant some chocolate ice cream, french fries and chicken nugget seeds too – he’s kinda got the right idea.
We’re all excited to get out in the dirt and get the garden ready for seeds and our little seedlings that we’ve been tending to over the last month or so. I’m going to be testing the pH of my soil this year for the first time and I’m curious to see how this will improve our gardens yield. I’m also trying pole beans for the first time! In the past we have grown bush beans, but I was always bummin’ by how quickly the harvest came and went. The pole beans should allow us a constant growth of new beans. We’re considering growing zucchini and/or summer squash on a trellis this year. Any of you have experience doing this? We don’t have a huge garden, so I was thinking one plant of each squash, and the internet tells me it’s easy to train the vines to grow on a trellis. Like I said, I’d love to hear from you if you’ve had experience with this. We’re trying potatoes again! Last year I just used some spuds from a bag of potatoes that had started growing roots – the results were lame. This year I’ve invested my $15 and am getting some real potato tubers from the professional seed people. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this will work, because there’s a little guy I know who’d really like to see me grow some french fries.
Cucumbers | Zucchini | Summer Squash | Carrots | Kale | Radishes | Broccoli | Rosemary | Basil | Pole Beans | Peas | Arugula | Bibb Lettuce | Cutting Lettuces | Potatoes
2013
2012
Hey if you’re interested in doing a little building my dad had a pyramid planter at the center of the garden to plant multiple herbs and keep them from getting buried under other plants (he installed a rotating sprinkler at the top too so it watered most of the garden). Something like this: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/534450680753116479/ . We always grew zucchini on the ground and once you get it going you better have some friends that love zucchini. We also had corn (amazing), and tomatoes & peppers that grew on those cage/tower things which takes up less square footage. My parents have since moved and my dad made new raised bed gardens and had it planned out by the beginning of February….
Yay! I love following along with your planting! I’m going to do a garden for the first time this year, and I have definitely gone through some of your old gardening posts for inspiration and tips :) I was hoping you would post this update soon!
Baah! That is so awesome Amy! I’m happy that you guys like these gardening posts, and that you specifically are feeling confident enough to try a garden for yourself. Do it, you’ll enjoy it. Don’t get discouraged – it’s all just trial and error.
My aunt (one of the best gardeners i know) has done winter squash on a trellis and it seems to work very well. She often takes old pantyhose or net bags from onions to suspend the growing fruit to the trellis so that it doesn’t fall off and break. I think I read somewhere that Thomas Jefferson grew squash on trellises at Monticello!
Hey Martha, Cool to hear! I like that panty hose idea. I’ve heard from a few people that say they’ve done this – so I think I’m gonna try it. I guess the worst thing that can happen is that it doesn’t work and I don’t try it again next year.
A quick google search shows me some people talking about trellising zucchini but I really can’t imagine how that works. The plant is very much like a bush, its gets huge, but all the long leaves are coming from the central root. It doesn’t have climbing tendrils like a cucumber either. I always make the mistake of planting too close and losing plants under the zucchini. I give it at least a 3’x3′ space (unless there are special compact varieties?)
I ran out of space in my raised veggie beds last year and planted a zucchini in the front yard perennial bed. Provided some nice green color behind the flowers :) Have to be creative on small city lots.
I run pole beans up my chain link fence, outside of the garden beds. I just turned over a 6 inch wide strip of ground at the base of the fence and mulched them once the beans came up to keep weeds down. They are very hardy and mine have been reseeding themselves in that location since I have been lazy about picking all the beans. I planted some morning glories along with them for color in the vines.
I would be interested in hearing more about soil PH testing. I have thought about doing that as well.
Yay for spring!
I know, I’m with you Rachel. I thought it grew as a big leafy mound as well. Then I had a friend who has had a veggie garden for awhile (also in Minneapolis) tell me that he trellised his and it works great, his garden was a mess without the trellis. I am worried about the mount of space. I think that I will only put one plant in, and if it starts to take over the garden I’ll just take it out – I guess there’s no harm in that, and then I’ll know if it works or not. Pole beans on a chain links sounds like a pretty good idea, I grew the cucumbers on ours, but now we don’t have the chain link so I am growing them on an a-frame trellis this year. I’ll let you guys know what I find out about the soil testing.
Don’t forget the bok choy! My own Gus (he’s 12) almost died when we served bok choy for dinner tonight. He suffers when I cook.