Garden 2009 Plans
Everywhere I read or look it seems I see garden stuff!!!! This season is sneaking up on me so fast I think I am going to get caught up in all the things to do and not get nothing done! I am really good about doing that and I do it better than anyone else I know.
These are two of the plans that I really like. I love the round one, it is a design for a herb garden and it is mounded up for easy access and visual interest. I think Mary Ellen will like it and I know that I will be putting this in at my home, I can see it at her house too.
The layout goes something like this. It is an 8 foot bed with the centerpiece being rosemary. I love rosemary and want to dry some for home use during the winter. The design shows rosemary around the top plant but I think I am going to put in dill. Or maybe I will reverse that, yeah that is what I will do cause the dill will grow fast and tall. I’ll put in three dill plants at the top, then 4 rosemary plants around that. Rosemary is a perennial and will come back every year, will need to use a lot (which I do) or maybe dry a lot and give away every year with Christmas presents.
The third plant in this design is purple leaf basil, they used it to add color but I don’t like basil. I do like Fennell so I think that is what I will plant along with Oregano in those spots with 2 plants each. On the outer edge I want to put in Chives (spot #4) and then fill in with parsley, cilantro and thyme. I grew a lemon thyme once and loved it in my chicken dishes. I think these will make great Christmas gifts, I found some pretty glass jars at Wall-mart to put herbs in so I am going to use those. I’ll show a pic of it in a later post, but I am excited about this project! Actually wouldn’t it be fun to do herb blends too? I’ll have to research that this summer!
The other plans look like they will do fine for our home garden, not the massive garden at Mary Ellen’s I want to do. They show a 12×22 foot garden and I will have to cut that in half for the one spot I have or maybe chop the picture up. I have three main spots for garden space and then I have 3 flower beds that I put veggies in as well. Our plot is just under .5 acres here with the house, so I have to be creative.
Anyway in the one spot I have it is 16ft by 8ft and last year I had 2 rows of green beans (half runners) there and they did great! I got enough off them to fix for our meals here at the house. I am told to rotate the plants out this year so am going to put tomato plants there this year. I think I can get in 8 plants in there two rows of 4 and it will be ok. I will have to cage them up to make it work, which is no problem. Last year they got huge and produced plenty of tomatoes for us, I had 2 caged and 4 on the ground.
The second space is right beside the first one up against the house. I am not too sure about what to plant there but think that Cucumbers will do good there because of the heat from the sun. However, I think that would be too many vines in one small area. So I think I will do a spring garden there using the French Method of planting. I will combine spinach and carrot seed and sow them together. The spinach will finish out just as the carrot’s come on. I will also plant plenty of lettuce and maybe some radishes so that Morgan can at least try them. Who knows maybe she will like them, I never did! This bed kinda curves into the front of 2 butterfly bushes and I think I can get a row of beets in there too. Or maybe I can put the beets in where the spinach and carrots are going and flip flop them. The bush should get going strong about mid june so that should work.
The third spot is actually a long flower bed in our yard bordering the neighbors yard. I won’t plant many annuals in there this year and last fall actually moved a lot of the bulbs out. I still have daffodils, tulips, monkey grass and chrysanthemums that I need to get out. I do have a blueberry bush in there that I want to add to with at least 3 more plants. I think that this is a good spot for my cucumbers. I want to plant the white wonders, lemon cuke, straight eights, and lots of pickling cucumbers. On the end of this bed I want to put 2 watermelon plants, the sugar baby is what I have in mind. On the other end I want to put in 2 cantaloupe plants. I have never had much luck with either of these but it will be fun to see how they do.
Now for the new beds! Willie is going to dig up two spots in my yard for new garden spots. One is going to be about a 12×12 with about 6-7 hours of sun a day. It is right off our back deck so getting to it will be easy. I want to put in 4 squash plants (2 zukes and 2 yellow) and the rest is going to be peppers. I want a variety of peppers to have so I can freeze them. I love roasted red peppers and have a great recipe for a red pepper spread (can you say Christmas presents!)
and will need them in my canning as well. I need them for spaghetti sauce, stewed tom’s, and frozen stuffed peppers.
The other new bed is going to be for strawberries. I want to have a decent sized bed so that we can just go out a pick some for breakfast or desserts. Right now I have them in pots and the do OK, but I never get enough to do anything with other than just pop them in your mouth. I will still have to go pick from a farm nearby to make my jams and jellies but I just want to have enough to do something with at the house.
I have one more spot that I can use but not sure what to do there. It is against a fence, gets lots of water runoff and only about 4-5 hours of full sun. Last year I planted bush beans and when we got a good rain they all ran into the neighbors yard. I may do raised bed there which would be great but what do I plant with such little sun?
I still want to have around the house some onions,peas,broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, and mini pumpkins. Now where are those seed catalogs?
