Veggie Garden Chit-Chat

This was supposed to be the basil plant purchased just so it could flower and in turn fill my gardening soul with the sweet sight of its tiny white blooms. There are others that aren't allowed to flower but are kept pinched back for use in the kitchen.

Have you ever seen a basil leaf 5 or 6 inches long? Needless to say, no flowering allowed on this prolific plant. It is feeding us well, adding its wonderful flavor to salads, spaghetti, and other meat dishes.


Just for fun... look at the camparison of growth in the photo above and the photo below ... in just 18 days. I wouldn't have realized it myself if not for the wonder of photo documentation.

It's been a while since I gave a veggie garden run down. If you've not read Hoe & Shovel before it would be fair to let you know this is Hoe & Shovel's first attempt at a veggie garden. You are welcomed to link to the back stories of its beginnings here and here.

There are some not-so-profound lessons I've learned about my garden over the course of time since March 13 when I put the first seed in the ground. These little tidbits were running through my head yesterday as I spent some uninterrupted hours further staking up the tomatoes for the umpteenth time (I'm not complaining), and harvesting beans, squash, tomatoes and bell peppers.

If you'd like to hear my ramblings, pull up a chair... I'll pour you a cup of coffee and ...

Okay, I guess you'll have to pour your own coffee ... too bad ... I wish each wonderful reader could stop by for a visit and you could tell me your lessons too.

Here we go.

The not-so-profound things I've learned/observed/discovered/decided ... you get the picture:

• That the cute ¼” bamboo stakes used initially to hold up small tomato plants aren’t as sturdy as they are cute.
  
• That the 8’(1 x 2) furring strips bought to help secure the house windows during the 2004 'Hurricane season from Hell' (never actually used then)… come in handy (cut in two) for bolstering the growing tomato plants.



• That the pole beans need a wider trellis to start with … again cute didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. It isn’t easy to harvest pole beans from vines twisted around each other.



• That it's possible I just might choose design (=cute) over function. ... sigh.
  
• That each individual squash and zucchini plant needs about 4 feet in diameter of space to spread. That translates to a maximum of two in an entire 4 x 8 bed. I only have two 4 x 8 beds so that translates into only 4 plants all together and nothing else planted. That translates to ---I WAYYYYY over-planted each bed and the squash and zucchini have not done great. Good, but not great … no overrunning amounts of fruit like should have been produced by so many plants given the proper amount of room.


• That carrots have lots of greenery using up space above ground and they are WAYYYYYYYY bigger on top than what’s under the ground.
  
• That I should have thinned out the carrots much more than I did. (Their harvest date is tomorrow and they aren't ready- hmmmm... I don't know what that means.)
  
• That it’s okay to pull some carrots up every once in a while just to see if there really is anything orange that slightly resembles a carrot growing underground.
  
• That marigolds planted in front of cucumbers will get much taller than the cucumbers and in turn block the sun from the cucumbers. Cucumbers need the sun to grow. I know, I'm really impressing you now.
  
• That marigolds planted anywhere in the bed would grow very tall and have to be transplanted to another place in the garden because my small beds just don’t have room for (those) flowers AND all the veggies I tried to grow.
  
• That even though we left 3 feet on either side of the raised beds where the confederate jasmine grows along a fence —the jasmine happens to bloom at the same time as the garden is growing. The bees love the jasmine. They don’t especially like me brushing up against them trying to make my way around in the garden.
  
• That I could breathe in the smell of tomato plants all day long and not tire of it.


• That it’s okay to cut off a tomato leaf occasionally just to walk around with it held to my nose taking deep whiffs of its wonderful fragrance. That I can do the same thing with basil, lavender, and cilantro and the plant is none the worse for it.
  
• That green beans are the very same green as their leaves and sometimes can be overlooked during the picking... Best to scour each bush a couple of times.



• That blue lake green beans grown in my garden might be the easiest to grow yet most wonderful flavor and taste of any beans I’ve had in my entire life.
  
• That I’m quite glad I took the advice of the Burpee package and planted another row of beans two weeks after the first seeds sown. Now I will enjoy beans for more blessed weeks.
• That cubanelle peppers and bell peppers grow very rapidly. Cubanelle are very sweet and tasty.



• That I definitely need more raised beds to grow more veggies. (Hopefully in time for the fall garden!)
  
• That the experience of vegetable gardening has been too wonderful for words. I’m quite sure I’ll never be satisfied to be without one.

You've Made Your Bed

Now what?

For the first time ever Hoe and Shovel is getting ready to plant a vegetable garden! Woo-hoo! For years – REALLY --years —I have dreamed of having a vegetable garden. My grandfather had a wonderful garden when I was growing up and that is where I got my first taste of home-grown, hand-picked, from-ground-to-stove-top yummyness. In the 24 years we have lived in this house I talked/dreamed of planting a veggie garden. For many reasons, some good – some understandable – some not so good—I’ve never done it.


My framed beds are made. I’m not handy with a saw (neither is hubby - but for the record- he's good at so many other things) so I hired someone to make them. I designed them – the handyman put them together. I’m starting small (baby steps) with (2) 4x8 beds just to see how I fare with this adventure and there's room “to grow” – hee-hee. That's why I tucked them in the corner.


He cleared the sod out first.


Then he got busy making the frames.


We used 2 x 6 cedar boards stacked on top of 2x4 cedar boards (turning them opposite at each end) and screwed (not nailed) together at the corners. This gives me a good 8-10” of height for each bed. I was really happy with the way they turned out.

I placed them in a section of my side yard that is fenced - the fence is laden with confederate jasmine which will bloom its deliciously scented white flowers in the spring. The gate just beyond the beds leads out to my backyard.

The fence was put in years ago when we had a dog. It isn't the prettiest fence or area of the garden but such potential awaits.

I contemplated putting mulch around the perimeter of the beds but in the rest of my garden I use leaves and grass clippings for mulch- not cypress. So that wasn't a great option for me. I thought about putting stepping stones around it but naaaaa... that didn't really do anything for me.

I decided on these crushed limestone rocks. It is a bit stark looking right now. Limestone rocks like these are used a lot in this area for xeriscaping. The advantage will be that the rocks will compact over time and weeds won't readily seed in it- it is 3 inches thick. I'm also thinking long term the rocks won't have to be replaced like mulch would.

But for the record, I'm not loving it yet... I think because it is so barren and cold looking. Once plants and flowers are growing I will make a more fair assessment.


I mixed blood meal and bone meal with the top layer of dirt for an organic fertilizer.

Wow, they look so small at a distance in this photo. As the photo indicates I have room for more just in case I decide I want to start a "market garden". :-)

We got a really good soaking rain to help the "beautiful" 3 yards of dirt I had delivered and had just transferred to the beds. I will let it all sit for a couple of weeks to get settled and "fixed" before I plant anything. I used part of the dirt in some other places in my yard to amend some existing beds. I'm crazy for dirt. The smell of it, the feel of it, the look of it... just makes you want to grow something pretty.

Now let's see ....what will I be growing? I've ordered seeds for tomatos, beans, squash, cucumber, leeks and zucchini. They should be arriving any day. Somehow I forgot carrots - I will need to remedy that situation.

Oh yes, and Zinnias. My first ever Zinnia seeds. I think Zinnias will add just the color I'll need to brighten up this corner garden. I should add a place to sit there too, don't you think?

Now for the real truth. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Some say start my seed in a tray, some say go ahead and put it in the ground and then thin out the plants. I'm going to keep reading and researching to get a good plan. I may break down and buy some plants since I might have waited a bit late to plant seeds. I'm just really happy I'm on my way to 'something' and I'll learn to do this just like I've learned to garden... through lots of trial and error.

Any suggestions or tips are very welcome.