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20 Feb ’12
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Well ladies and gents, here we are in the midst of a brutally cold January and thoughts of garden dance in our heads. To remind us of green things, bright tastes, and long sunny days we took some time today to plan out our garden for 2015.
A few goals for 2015:
- Install irrigation in the beds so manual upkeep in minimized. We will likely make our own quick and easy drip hose system and string it through the garden this year.
- Build a new bed, Bed 5 in the planning image, that will be another 3x8 raised bed.
- Do a better job of protecting vulnerable produce this year. Our blueberries, squash, and melons got ravaged a bit last year so we hope to eat more than the squirrels in 2015.
- Go a bit more vertical with our vines this year. I want to throw together a quick and easy trellis system we can simply stake into the ground behind our melon/squash this year.
- Build a wicked bee condo for the native pollinators.
Here is our official 2015 garden planning PR image:
Note the future bee condo (Douglas Fir) for scale on the beer cans. 
And our semi-official, subject to change, plan for 2015:
Given the plan above our garden falls out as follows:
Fedge: The fedge was planted towards the end of 2014 and contains a mix of currants and raspberries. It is a bit shady back there so our options are limited. This year we will spend some time improving the growing conditions back there to give the fedge the best shot as being a success.
Compost: Status quo here, just keep adding materials, mixing, and taking out beautiful soil. Hopefully anyway.
Bed 1 (3'x6'):
Chard/Chard/Spinach/Spinach/Lettuce/Lettuce
Chard/Chard/Spinach/Spinach/Lettuce/Lettuce
Kale/Kale/Kale/Kale/Sorrel/Sorrel
Bed 2 (3'x6'):
Cucumber/Cucumber/Cucumber/Cucumber/Cucumber/Cucumber
Garlic/Garlic/Garlic/Garlic/Garlic/Garlic
Garlic/Garlic/Garlic/Garlic/Garlic/Garlic
Bed 3 (1'x6'), trellis:
Peas/Peas/Peas/Pole beans/Pole beans/Pole beans
Bed 4 (3'x8'):
Zucchini/Zucchini/Corn
Zucchini/Zucchini/Corn
Spinach/Spinach/Corn
Spinach/Spinach/Corn
Delicata Squash/Delicata Squash/Corn
Delicata Squash/Delicata Squash/Corn
Spaghetti Squash/Spaghetti Squash/Corn
Spaghetti Squash/Spaghetti Squash/Corn
Bed 5 (3'x8'), new bed :
Cherry tomato/Cherry tomato
Cherry tomato/Cherry tomato
Roma tomato/Roma tomato
Roma tomato/Roma tomato
Roma tomato/Roma tomato
Roma tomato/Roma tomato
Black Pear tomato/Black Pear tomato
Black Pear tomato/Black Pear tomato
Bed 6 (3'x8'):
Dill/Dill/Dill
Dill/Dill/Dill
Cilantro/Cilantro/Cilantro
Savory/Savory/Savory
Peppers, type TBD/Peppers, type TBD/Peppers, type TBD
Peppers, type TBD/Peppers, type TBD/Peppers, type TBD
Peppers, type TBD/Peppers, type TBD/Peppers, type TBD
Peppers, type TBD/Peppers, type TBD/Peppers, type TBD
Bed 7 (3'x8'):
Manitoba Melon/Watermelon/Spaghetti Squash/Delicata Squash/Ground Cherry
Manitoba Melon/Watermelon/Spaghetti Squash/Delicata Squash/Ground Cherry
Manitoba Melon/Watermelon/Spaghetti Squash/Delicata Squash/Ground Cherry
Blueberry patch: Status quo, hopefully more for people less for squirrels!
The garlic were planted last fall, and seeds will be started indoors in late Feb/early March so not much will be going on over the next few weeks aside from ordering some seeds and drinking beer. Our first garlic sprouted on April 17 last year, so we are getting close!
Happy trails.
15 Feb ’12
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lol, nice!
Here is our official 2015 garden planning PR image:
Were you able save much seeds from last year? Have you gotten any more neighbors on board?
20 Feb ’12
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We saved a bit of seed, but we are not super keen on saving most things. We have a really good local supplier of organic seed that we use so the extra effort of saving from our garden is not a priority.
No new news on the neighbours initiative. Talk to action is the hurdle as always. It is really cool that people like the garden and express that to us, but translating their intent to garden into actually gardening is not going to happen often.
15 Feb ’12
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Yeah, I find that with a lot of people. They show an interest but aren't willing to put the work in to accomplish it. Too much "stuff" to do.
20 Feb ’12
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So I've been slacking a bit on updates since Mid Feb apparently. Here is a bit of a whirlwind to get us caught up. The post after this one will bring us up to speed on this weekends efforts.
Around March 15 we started our seeds. Just the tomatoes, ground cherry, and some herbs. We are going to direct sow what we can this year to cut down on work during the seed starting process.
And before you knew it a few weeks later everyone was happy and growing strong. We plant a two seeds per cup so this pic was taken as we separated the seedlings. Our germination rates are really high so we could get away with a single seed per cup but we figure what the heck and double up.
Our Black Pears were doing great.
The Cheesmanii are doing well. They are wild vine tomatoes we are trying this year.
The whole forest was looking happy. Our spider plant had babies so we took the opportunity to throw them in the seed starting area.
On April 19th the first garlic arrived. Funny thing is it cam from a bulb that was accidentally left in the ground last year. No garlic from the actual garlic bed were up yet as the straw was keeping the sun off the soil.
And that is pretty much all the excitement from Feb to April.
20 Feb ’12
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So this weekend we finally had two days of good weather and it was go time for a lot of the garden stuff.
First off on Friday after work I built a new 3x8 bed, then we went and got compost first thing Saturday morning and filled it up. I love the new cedar look, the other beds are so drab!
We then took some time to admire the tulips and the might hardy kiwi pair.
the kiwi are doing great. There are already a few inches of new growth in a lot of places. I think it will really go off this year.
Our actual garlic area came to life last week. We counted 80+ heads up from the 108 or so that went in.
The peas in the trellis area are just starting to roll.
The comfry is back. We added some soil around their rock infested area.
We put a lot of fresh soil down the fedge. The currants and raspberry are just starting to get going. This is another crappy area due to the fill that was used when the house was built. We are hoping to slowly build up the soil quality in this area.
20 Feb ’12
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We fully planted our greens bed. The French Sorrel is a perennial and came back nicely. Now the kale, chard, spinach, and lettuce have joined it in the back bed.
back in the basement the seedlings forest is healthy and happy. The fan is now set on the light timer as well.
And this ground cherry already has a flower. This guy is ten times the size of the ones we planted last year. Not sure why they are doing so well compared to last year, but we'll take it.
It was a beautiful weekend here and so nice to be back outside working the garden, which I think I will now start calling the farm.
Next steps are irrigation for the font beds, and then the rest of the planting to follow last frost in a couple of weeks.
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