My Garden

Apparently I have a readership of one (Thank you Kristal!), & your kind comment has given me another subject to blog about. My garden! How I love my patch of dirt. Last season I was heavily pregnant & weeding & I remember thinking happily, "Life is my hobby." As it turns out, my garden is rather dismal. The first year I planted I decided on the 3 sisters, not knowing how thirsty corn could be or how hungry rabbits could get or how much 7 zucchini plants would actually grow. Also tomatoes & stevia & 1 pepper. I got loads of zucchini, tomatoes & stevia, but it turns out we don't actually like the taste of stevia & I don't know how to can. At least it didn't seem worth the effort to can when my canner would only hold a pint. Anyway, my first year garden was just that; a shopping experiment to see what would & would not grow.

This last year I planted heavily in beans. I know they do well, & I finally got a rabbit fence so we could quit shooting them from the bedroom window. Also garlic, cucumbers, watermelons & carrots. Everything grew great! But about that time I gave birth, started babysitting a 3 month old & my outside excursions were drastically reduced. Hardly anything got picked. Sad. Husband, equalling produce w/ success, doesn't think much of my efforts & has asked me not to plant again this spring. We've lost some curb appeal & he wants to take down my boxes & put all of the dirt against the house to shore up the foundation. The last owner really scraped it away for some reason or another. I have my spring bulbs coming up over there. I'm hoping to persuade him to wait until June, I have garlic in those boxes & I'd like to see what they do. This is hard for me, but there may be changes soon on the horizon, & at the very least I can plan a good fall garden. I started square footing my boxes. Basically you make a square in which you can access it from all sides to reach in for weeding, watering, picking, etc. This way you never miss picking anything ripe, water waste is drastically reduced, & nothing ever gets stepped on. There are clearly defined pathways in my plots, & Victor can more easily help me.
One drawback to a squarefoot garden is that you are to sprout seedlings. I've killed every seedling I've ever sprouted. Not quite, but close enough. Husband doesn't blame me for this though; even our aloe plant is dying, & they're supposed to be impervious to the worst of neglect. I hope to soon have pictures. Stupid Vista.