What I've planted....

19 years ago

I hope no one minds me suddenly popping onto this forum. I've never really gardened before, with the exception of a few pots here and there and some container veggies. I have a house with a really shady yard, lots of lovely hostas, but not much space for anything else. After five long years of wanting it done, my husband and I built a small 4' x 7 1/2' raised bed in the backyard this past weekend. We're trying square-foot gardening. We filled it with wonderful compost and went ahead and planted. Some things are probably too soon, other's probably too late, but what the heck - seeds are cheap.

I planted pole beans, cantaloupe, marigolds, 3 tomatoes, 4 peppers, lettuce (2-types), spinach, basil, oregano, rosemary, turnips, carrots and I'm thinking of a zucchini (mine never produce, but worth a try again) and some onions. In the front of my house I have large 52"x18" and 48"x18" planters, with wave petunias and I'm adding bright-lights swiss chard, cucumbers and black beans to those.

I'm very excited about gardening this year and have really enjoyed reading my "neighbor's" posts!

Alys

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Comments (6)

gldno1
19 years ago
Welcome, Alys, the more the merrier!

Sounds like you have been busy. You may be fine on all the plantings...you never know. At least you can cover the tomatoes if a frost is predicted.
Violet_Z6
19 years ago
I hope no one minds me suddenly popping onto this forum. I've never really gardened before, with the exception of a few pots here and there and some container veggies.

That's what the forums are for - participation!

Sounds like you've done a bit of research and hit the ground running. Don't be shy about using the other forums as well.

Have you read the book Square Foot Gardening?
The author is speaking this weekend at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield at their spring festival. They'll have many heirloom vegetables and other plants and goods for sale from different vendors from all over the US.

I highly recommend you attend if you can.

Square Foot Gardening

Container Gardening

Vegetables

Baker Creek Festival
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lilion
Original Author
19 years ago
Thank you for the welcome. Mel Bartholomew is in Mansfield, MO? I'm trying to think of how far away that is. I read the book several years ago and have been lurking/posting on the Square Foot Garden forum. I used to come here quite a lot, but never to this forum and I drifted away from Gardenweb when I decided I was just NEVER going to get any done. I hung out on the soil forum a few years back and made compost for a bit...well, still, but not very well. LOL! Here is my garden layout if anyone cares to take a peek!
christie_sw_mo
19 years ago
Welcome Alys! Hope you stick around. Sounds like you've got a lot planted already. Where'd you get your big planters? I bet they will be beautiful filled with wave petunias.
I keep thinking I want to go to the Baker Creek festival but something always comes up. I was just looking at the link for it. It's on Sunday and MONDAY. I assumed it would be Sat and Sun. Maybe I could sneak away for awhile. I want a couple birdhouses for Mother's Day and would even settle for the ones made out of gourds. I was thinking there might be someone selling those at the festival. I'd LOVE to look through all the plants they'll be selling there.
lilion
Original Author
19 years ago
I made the 54"x18" - it's 12" deep. All by my little old self! I'm so proud. LOL! We have these cedar/redwood/or something panels we got at a Hood's store. They are made of 4 boards hooked together and about 16" wide and 54" long. I cut one board off two of them to make the panels 12"wide and then used the cut-off boards, cut into pieces, for the ends, screwed the whole thing together with scrap 2x4's as the braces and "feet" and then put old 1x6's in the bottom, lined the whole thing with a double layer of landscape fabric to keep the soil in and let the water through...viola...huge planter! The smaller one isn't done yet...My hubby is going to have to help with it, because I'm scared of the table saw and it has to be cut down more than I can do with a hand-saw or miter-saw! There are limits to my womanly handiness!

Just checked the map and think I'll have to miss the festival...it's about 2 1/2 hours to Mansfield from here. I'm actually considering asking for a Biostack composter for Mother's day...something to get the piles out of the back yard!
oakleif
19 years ago
Glad you joined us alys. You just showed one of the true signs of a real gardenolic,with wanting a biostack composter for mother,s day. Yep you're a hard boiled case.you've come to the right place.LOL
Congrats on making your own planter. Tools and i are allergic to each other.
vickie