Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The 32 Square Foot Garden

Since tree removal gave us sun, but not good soil, this year I took my garden's up a bit. From the suggestion of a coworker, I did a variation of this method.

I consulted the coworker, that site, and any others that posted pictures. I also threw in some personal experience and consultations with my mom, the professional (with a Master's now too) environmentalist. I learned a bit from all of them, and we'll see if it pays off. This is what I have.

The tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and edible flowers were all from the Landscape Arboretum Plant sale. (a must of you garden or like plants & shrubery and are local). The wildflower experiment was from the dollar section at Target and is for M to have flowers she can pick. We'll see how it goes. I got a metric ton of them for a buck.

The future tomatoes were generously donated by Shanu, a college friend of A's. They are getting a little bigger before going in. The high winds could have hurt the little buggers. The onions were more from the plant sale. I've never transplanted onion sprouts before, and I have absolutely no idea how that is going to work out. The seeds are all from Burpee via Home Depot. I realized when planting them it has been close to 15 years since I last did anything from seed. I'm nervous and may have over seeded. Radishes should be ready to eat in less than a month. Squee!

I'm a bit worried about the whole "compact" thing. However, look at what this guy is doing. The blend of compost and peat moss should create a nutrient rich environment. I even did a deeper soil depth just to make sure I could do root crops. According to both of them, nothing should have to be "planter" varieties, just the plain old stuff. Anything should be better than no garden at all. Worst case, I can always just hit the farmer's market. I'll need to anyways for cucumbers, I couldn't figure out how to deal with vines just yet.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks great da. Just be sure to not plant the nightshade family-tomatoes, peppers, eggplant in the same spots next year--need a 3 year rotation on those. I love compact gardens-makes more sense with water, space and other needs.

Have fun.
love ya,

Shanu said...

I usually plant the tomatoes deep, e.g. the whole stem. It'll build-out roots along that stem. Deeper roots, I figure, are better - especially with the indeterminate tomatoes. Then I stake/staple a plastic grocery bag windbreak, burying the bottom part of the bag, around each one until it gets a little bigger.

Sarah @ BecomingSarah.com said...

I can't wait to see how everything turns out! Planting a garden was our big to-do this year, but, um, well. You know, funny thing, I'm pretty sure there's still no garden in my yard. That it's still all weeds and dirt.

So I have to live and learn vicariously through others =)

Pusher said...

Beautiful!