Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Planning My Garden

I didn't have a garden in 2011.  I really enjoyed growing food in 2010 and it was sad to me that I wasn't able to get to garden planning in 2011 (gardening and planting should have happened right when all the job changes hit so there was no time for gardening).

This year, I need to get back to gardening.  I have been reminded of it several times in the past week.  There have been several discussions in my online mom community and then I came across a pin on Pinterest that inspired me.

With that planned out garden in mind and knowing we already have a fantastic raised bed that Jeff built in 2009, I'm ready to start thinking about my 2012 garden.

The first thing I will need to do this spring is upgrade the soil.  I need to remove all of the dead growth from the bed, till the existing soil, and add new manure and soil.

I'd like to add the framing on the end of the bed.

I'd like to grow:

onions
radishes
tomatoes
jalapenos
beets
peas
carrots
brussels sprouts

I would have 2 kinds of tomato and the peas on the end frame.  I'd like to grow red onions, beets and carrots close to each other since they all grow in the dirt. Brussels sprouts, radishes and jalapenos in another section.  Given the size of my garden and in the interest of avoiding overcrowding, I see my garden divided into 4 x 3 instead of 4 x 4.

I also want to clear out my herb garden on my deck so that I can again have fresh cilantro right outside my door.  Cilantro would be the main herb that I use but I'd also like to have lemon thyme again since it goes so well with chicken, beets, brussels sprouts, fish.

With this plan, I'm hitting the favorites of the family.  Teagan and I love tomatoes.  I love brussels sprouts and beets.  We use onion often in lots of recipes.  I like radishes as a snack or in salad.  I love jalapenos.  Teagan loves peas, Zach loves carrots.

Will you have a garden this year?  What are you planting?

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3 comments:

Heather said...

I did a garden last summer, and currently have an herb garden growing in the windowsill of my kitchen. Since it's just me, this summer I probably won't bother with the garden, but I will def. keep the herb one going. There is nothing like fresh basil, chives, oregano & thyme! :)

Call Me Cate said...

I never have much luck with gardening. Our soil is so awful. We looked at putting in some raised container gardens or some other solution last year but since we live 5 minutes from the huge State farmers market, we figured it would be less work and possibly less money to buy from the area farmers instead. We always do some herbs though - I hate paying for a huge chunk of herbs when all I want are a few leaves for a recipe. Having an herb garden makes me happy.

Good luck with your green thumb!

Alison said...

Most of that stuff is pretty early spring planting. The brussels sprouts will take a fair amount of space as they grow. But your peas, radishes (and maybe beets and carrots) may well be done before the rest of the garden really gets going. So you can space things accordingly...maybe put the tomatoes and peas nearby, so after the peas are gone, the tomatoes can grow into that space.

I haven't thought much about our garden. We've done a terrible job of actually using what we grow, especially later in the summer. I've managed to keep a raised lettuce bed going through the winter though, and we've used that several times.

I'd better stop now. I could go on... :)