2012 Kick-Off

It is officially time to get to work on the 2012 garden. (Yes, I do realize that I missed most of 2011... I'll post a few additional snapshots a bit later on.)

Now that we'll actually be in the house for the entire planting season, I'm going back in action and getting the plans ready for our first full-fledged veggie garden. While the long-term master plan calls for the "working" garden to be at the back of the property, there is still a LOT of work that needs to take place to clear out the area so that it can house the garden. It is currently still very overgrown and has way too many trees to have enough light. That means that the current plan is to once again site the vegetable garden in the front of the house. 

The current plan calls for the creation of at least 6 new beds which will provide approximately 275 sq.ft. of planting space. Considering the garden at our old house topped out at about 100 sq.ft. it will be quite an increase. The beds will be just slightly raised unlike the beds at the old house which were up about 11 inches. These are eventually going to be converted to perennial beds, so I don't want them to be very high.

Here's the current planting plot...

2012 Planting Plan

As you can see, the overall shape is more or less a triangle, due to the shape of the space. The approximate location is indicated by the orange arrow on the very aspirational master plan below.  (It is side down in the plan view). The longest side borders the sidewalk to the front door. The three empty triangles are still TBD. They most likely will be paved and then hold either the concrete standards, potted plants, or may be planted out with standard roses and / or an arbor.

The "Master Plan"

Here's a current view of the "Master Plan". I'm working from front to back, so currently the only thing complete are the beds at the top right of the image which is the side that borders the street. (You can see the eventual long-term location for the veggie garden at the bottom right.) Of course this version of the plan does not take into account the CRAZY slope at the back of the lot, or the location of the massive trees that will eventually have to come down. You can at least get a feeling for what it might look like some day!

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On The Move!

The blog has OBVIOUSLY fallen into disrepair over the last 8 months! I could make excuses, but that's really not going to help! Let's just say MUCH has happened in that time period! The 2010 garden turned out to be one of the most productive to date and we still have a freezer packed with green beans and jars and jars of homemade sauce. That said, the 2010 season was a tremendous challenge as I really started feeling like I'd outgrown the tiny 16' x 16' back yard. Even though the 84 square feet produced plenty of fresh produce for the two of us, I had completely run out of room for any other endeavors! In October I decided that the time had come to look for a LARGER space to garden. 

My old 16' x 16' plot served me well!

The hunt was on. We had some pretty specific ideas about what we were looking for... at least 3 bedrooms, within 10 minutes of both Jason's and my work, and at least one acre. Not an easy feat. However we did manage to find an amazing property that had everything we wanted and then some. The process was started and, nearly 3 months later its official... the move is on!

The New Place!

The new place has almost 2.5 ACRES!!! which means that's about a 10,000% increase in the size of the garden! Its in the city, 3 minutes from Jason's work and 10 minutes from mine, and the house has 4 bedrooms and another full space for Jason's studio. It's a HUGE fix-up project. But I will FINALLY have room to dream and grow the garden of my dreams!!! This place has it all, really:

Gazebo

The Pool

Fountain/Pond

Windmill

That's right folks! WINDMILL or what's left of it anyway!! It's an extremely unique lot and one that I hope over time will be transformed into a truly amazing garden! Just to put it all in perspective The GREEN area shows the dimensions of the new lot. The YELLOW box shows the size in scale of the OLD garden!!!!

If that's not enough room for an AWESOME garden... then I should probably just throw in the trowel! Needless to say it won't be done all at one time, so there should be PLENTY of material to keep me posting for the foreseeable future! Keep checking back for updates on what springtime brings as we move in and start on the next exciting phase of our garden adventure!!

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2010 - Kickoff Post

Well it may be the middle of winter... 16 degrees at the moment (with wind chill)... but it is time to get the planning for this year's garden underway!

So far I've combed through no less than 9 different seed catalogs.... narrowed it down to 4 catalogs, and made my master list of seeds that I have and seeds that I need to order for 2010. I'll be placing the orders around the 15th or so. That way I'll have everything in (hopefully!) by the middle of February and be ready to get things started the beginning of March!

I've also started working on the plot for the garden. I'll post that as soon as I have it finished. No huge changes... I'll be rotating the beans and tomatoes as much as I can to try and cut down on any disease problems. I'm also going to turn over the entire center bed to the herbs to free up space in the three main beds. They'll have to battle it out with the nasturtiums. That means reducing the amount of ornamental peppers and relocating the heliotropes... but I'm fine with that. I'm also going to be on the look-out for a few more substantial containers to replace the two smaller ones on the corner... so we'll see how that turns out!

More to come!

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Time changes everything...

Well, the longer I sit around and wait on the weather the more time I have to think and re-think the actual plans for the garden. I liked the space that the original plan gave, but I really wasn't crazy about the aesthetics of 9 big boxes of dirt in the yard. 

I tinkered around with the layout after having the brilliant epiphany that there's not really any need to keep the existing bed int he back of the garden. I can actually incorporate that space  into the plan for the new raised bed garden. (Of course when cleaning up the yard today I discovered that all of the crocuses are already pushing through back there, but I think I'll just try and re-locate them.)

The new look actually gives an additional 22 square feet of space and has a much more aesthetically pleasing look (I think!). The space between the two beds at the top which is now labeled "existing bed" will actually be the site of a small fountain, and the space between the two beds at the left will probably be devoted to a bench. In the center octagon the birdbath is gone and will be replaced by a yet to be located focal feature. Some form that will be a trellis for some nice climbing vines.

This new arrangement also makes it much easier to run the drip irrigation, so that should be a bonus! Now all I have to do is re-plot all of the planting locations for everything.  Hopefully I can manage that tomorrow around homework and other projects!

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2009 Garden Plan

Hot off the press.... here's the layout and planting diagram for this year's garden:

                                             

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Spring Fever!

The days are getting longer and it's time to start planning for spring! I've just finished placing orders for all of my vegetable seeds. I'm expanding the garden this year. I'll be converting part of the yard to raised beds so I can really max out the growing area. (Besides, the grass just has to be mowed anyway.) I'm going to test out the Square Foot Garden method and see how that goes. Stay tuned!

My trusty Park Seed Catalog all tabbed up! The order is in... planting starts soon!

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