Gardening
Soothes the soul and feeds the belly... Also I really like it. Thus we've built several. I went to get soil for the one bed but it was less to get a pick up truck load than a few bags... so then we had to build a few more. And sweet potato has a was of taking over the world if one lets it.


A small mint plant was placed directly in the ground about ten months ago. A few feet away was a small strawberry plant. A foot or so from there, an oregano. All of them are vigorous spreading plants. Especially the strawberry and mint. So we dug a foot deep barricade and dropped a board in before my entire long garden became mint. I'm quite pleased it's doing so well and all but there's only so much mint a girl can use. I also dug up a strawberry runner and planted it in a large pot, hopefully we'll get loads of berries between the potted one and the garden.


Basically what I have now is three full beds.


One is my baby garden, planted just before Thanksgiving and carefully covered when the temps are supposed to drop below 40 degrees at night. It's quite the jerry-rigged affair these days as the plants are growing so quickly but thus far we've lost none of the babies to the freeze. I tucked an old bell pepper that might be a goner in the corner in hopes it'd come back. She didn't do so well in the first freeze.


Another garden, now partitioned to keep the mint and strawberry at bay, has two broccoli plants, a variety of lettuce and a couple cilantro. I haven't ever covered any of this but it's hardy and doing well none the less. I just picked back all the lettuce so they are a bit naked right now but I get a few salads a week from them. The broccoli was growing in another garden up against chicken wire so they look scraggly but they are still producing quite well in spite of the freezes, the transplant and the general abuse from chicken wire.



The third garden is basically a doubling of my first garden, which was a 4*4. We basically used the wood from that garden and some other scavenged wood to build a much bigger bed then transferred the soil from the original garden into the bigger, slightly rearranged bed. (It was up against the short fence on the right.) Because about 1/2 the soil had been planted for a full year this bed, built in November, won't be planted until early February, although the soil seems good as I can't keep the volunteer plants out of it.


The fence to the right in the first photo, we put up right before adding the beds. There was a chicken wire fan fare that, while mostly did its job of keeping the dogs out, was ugly and difficult to work around. I wanted something more workable and pleasant to look at and I think we got both with this semi-pre-fabricated fencing from Home Depot.


We have two composts. One is mature and I use it in the gardens. The other is immature and we add our (organic) scraps from the kitchen as well was tea and coffee grounds.


I have a box that's dug into the ground that I am planting herbs in. I have cilantro and dill already and there's three garlic bulbs planted that will hopefully be ready in June or so.


Lastly, I have a box that has a bottom on it in which I'll plant sweet potato. I planted last year and it took over the entire 4*4 and when I dug up the 4*4 in November, despite the lining that was down, I found sweet potatoes. They were the size of peas up to the size of a thumb but they were there despite the fact that I had dug up all the sweet potatoes and turned the soil really really well over a year ago. And so, I'm planting sweet 'taters in a box this time around lest my entire yard be taken over by sweet potato.

I'm working up the plan for my February planting - only 2.5 weeks away!! And then the long garden will rest until mid-March or so when I'll plant again... Lots of planning to do.