The Washington garden has two main sections, the east garden and the north garden. Included in these gardens, where they intersect, is what I call the kennel garden. It is, as its name implies, the former (but never used) dog kennel. It's approximately 8'x13', and provides me with chain link to use for climbing plants, as well as a place to string clothesline for summer clothes drying.
This past week, I've been planning my east garden. Of course, I'm sure I'll be changing my mind, but here is the first draft. As usual, click the photo to enlarge.
I've grouped the beets and spinach into one bed, as I am determined to foil those pesky leaf miners this year. Those are my two susceptible crops, so I'll use a row cover on them.
The lettuce is in a separate bed, as a shade structure of lattice will be used over them as the weather warms. Will the weather ever warm? Brrr, even here in AZ!
Besides the east garden, the kennel garden and the north garden, I also have some smaller areas in the back yard where I grow vegetables. There's the 3'x14' strip on the east side of the garden shed, a 12'x12' area behind the shed, a 4'x12' strip next to the west fence, and a few spots for pots and ground covers around the patio. All these are still in the 2010 planning stage, and I'll post them as they are finished.
I think I've solved the mystery of the kale seedlings growing in a pot in my AZ mini-garden. It's not kale, it's cilantro. Stefaneener sent me the seeds last fall, and one of us mis-labeled them. I'm sure it was me, thinking kale is big so it should have big seeds.
I'll not post a Monday Harvest today. I did have a small harvest this week, a few radishes, a handful of lettuce, an onion or two and one very small tomato, but to publish a photo would be redundant. I could use the same photo week after week!
Looking back at my notes on the Arizona mini-garden, I now see why the spinach is growing well in one section, but not at all in another. The good spinach is from a new packet of seed, the bad is from 2008 seed. There comes a point when it just makes sense to throw old seed away and begin anew.
Hi Granny your plan gooks good. I’m just getting the material together for my potting soil some will be pure compost but I have a lot of odds and ends to get rid of. When I have the PS made I will start the planning of type and location of plants, Much of the garden will be like last year though. John
ReplyDeleteJohn, I'm just itching to get that soil blocker working! I found a good sized bag of vermiculite down here, but can't remember where I bought it now! Anyway, I already used every bit of it in my pots, so I'll be on the lookout for more. I can't find a good buy on it at home, and I find it to be an important ingredient to the mix I use in the soil blocks.
ReplyDeleteIt looks wonderful! What program do you use for your plans? I still use the ol' colored pencils and ruler, but I must admit it's kind of fun, like coloring for grownups, but you have me itching to get my stuff out and start drawing!
ReplyDeleteGranny - I made my 2010 garden plan back at the beginning of October. Hey, I was bored! I can't help it if the TV programs my wife watches don't interest me...Anyway, I'm not gonna keep up with the harvest total this year. It's just too much trouble, and i'll know how the garden did, by the contents in the freezer. Big things are in the works for this garden, big things.....
ReplyDeleteLooks good, Granny! Hopefully you'll get a good, early start this year if you go home early.
ReplyDeletewow, granny, how did you make that draft? it's amazing!
ReplyDeleteby the way, i nominated you for the happy 101 award! the details are here. http://animalfriendlyeating.blogspot.com/2010/01/happy-101-blog-award-and-giveaway.html
happy garden daydreaming! (i'm doing the same!=)
Plans are looking good, you have such nice spaces laid out. So do all those tomatoes get scattered about in containers then?
ReplyDeleteErin, I scanned a graph paper page and saved it. Then I found all my graphics on line, some by doing an illustration search at http://www.fotosearch.com and a lot from http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/index.html Then I just put it all together using three programs; Paint, Irfanview and an old copy of PhotoDeluxe. It takes quite a long time to make the garden plan, but it's fun, and keeps me out of trouble ;-)
ReplyDeleteEG, I debated whether I'd keep a total of poundage from the garden this year. I proved to myself the 1000 pound mark could be done last year, so there is no reason to do it again...but I might, just for "fun". I'm looking forward to seeing your 2010 garden! Mine will stay basically the same as last year, with a few exceptions.
ReplyDeleteRibbit, I hope to NOT start early, as not much can be done before mid-March. My tomatoes were started too early last year! Some of my seedlings got a bit too large.
ReplyDeleteKelli, see my answer to Erin, above.
ReplyDeleteWoo-hoo! I love awards! I'm on my way to see it...thank you!
Kelly, I'm going to put most of the tomatoes in the bottomless 5-gallon buckets this year. I had my indeterminates way too crowded last year, with 7 in that one bed, so each fence post is going to get a bucket attached to it as an experiment this year, and my cherry toms will be planted by the patio and the garden shed.
ReplyDeleteUm, Gran, this garden plan is fantastic! I've been meaning to put one to together but I know idea how to start. If only someone could email me a copy of their graph paper...(hint, hint). :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you account for spacing here too? I'm assuming this means you plant two potato plants per square foot?
I got the hint, Thomas :-)
ReplyDeleteSpacing is 1 square = 1 foot. I'm debating one or two potatoes per square. I like the small, new potatoes, so I think I'll go for 2. If I wanted larger potatoes, I'd only plant one per square.
Your garden plan looks like what I do with graph paper and tracing paper. I can overlay drawings to do succession planning. It looks so neat -- and I bet your reality is close to your graphic, too.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the seeds -- did I send you small ones, too? If not, I'll send some kale seeds. Geeze.
Stefaneener, you sent me small seeds too. I was just sure you said the large ones were the kale, that's what I wrote on the side of the can, but I probably read it wrong. Since I've never grown kale or cilantro, I wouldn't know one seed from the other! Cilantro is fine, though..I was definitely going to plant that anyway, for next summer's salsa.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous plans AG! Such fun to use the graphics and lay it out so well. I do mine using draw functions in Word - I just laid out the beds and then year to year I change the text boxes indicating what is in each section and how big each section is. It would much prettier with the graphics though. Perhaps I need to while away some time and do some additions! See you have inspired me!
ReplyDeleteMy garden plan is pretty well completed now but I have been doing a little fine tuning here and there. My sister just gave me over the Christmas weekend a set of four very large black potting containers - the kind that medium to large trees are usually in when you purchase them potted. I then mulled over what to plant in them for a week and have now decided to put some more tomatoes in them.
Kitsap, I love the planning! What I don't like is the anguish I go through when I don't have enough garden space to plant all I want, LOL! Down here I have 6/10th of an acre, where nothing will grow. At home I have that tiny back yard that just screams "tear out the grass!". I think I'll be making use of all 12 of my 5-gallon buckets this year, and your big black pots would be to die for....although I'd probably have to paint them white due to our summer heat. I need to watch Freecycle for big nursery pots this year. I saw (missed) several of them last year. My jalapenos will go in pot this year, for sure.
ReplyDeleteI haven't gotten to the planning stage yet. If my kids weren't home I probably would have, but they tend to occupy me.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I'm planning out of boredom. I'll change my plans multiple times, then when the time comes I'll just plant and probably not even look at my carefully made plans! I know me ;-)
ReplyDelete