This is the 3rd year of having my own garden and each year it evolves and I try new things. I’ve learned various methods different ideas, etc. So as of now I have officially decided on my garden!! I think…… J It is going to take a little work this year but I have a design to start and I’ve already done my mapping out and measurements for space.
Based on my Uncle’s suggestion last summer when he was here I decided to try raised beds this year. Course this will be a lot of work as I don’t have any currently but that’s ok I’ll survive. Just got to bribe my hubby to help me with it!
I checked my strawberry patch the other day; the leaves are starting to green! YAY... We are toward the end of February and still have not had any major snow. Our largest snowfall this winter was like 6 inches... I think we’ve totaled maybe 10 inches which is unusual for us. And it has been relatively warm. So I’m hoping to get a head start on getting the garden prepped. I’ll need more dirt, I’m sure, plus some fertilizer to spread and mix in.
I’ve bought some seeds to start indoors, which I’m trying 3 methods this year. 1. The Burpee’s self watering system. 2. The regular traditional with a heat mat. 3. Egg shells in egg carton. Figure if I start these relatively soon, I will know how they do and whether or not I need to buy plants if mine don’t work. So here’s my plan to start indoors:
- Tomatoes
- Green Peppers
- Hot peppers
- Cucumbers
I also may start some watermelon and cantaloupe indoors as well depending on how my above start out.
So now the key thing will be to get the beds set up and filled with the appropriate dirt, move my berry bushes over to my ‘berry patch’. And hope that I can get some good yields out of this garden this year! Last year I had lettuce, good tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers. Peas died (too hot), the beans did so-so, carrots washed away and I didn’t plant the melons.
So what do you all think of my ‘plan’:
2011 Garden
*New* berry patch
