I also worked on my personal planting calendar for the year. I like listing a range of planting dates for each vegetable, so I can refer to the calendar each time I have an open spot for planting. I can just check to see what can be planted on that particular day.
Then the bug hit me, so I had to do a layout for my east garden. You can click on this picture to enlarge it, then click on the + to make it full size. Of course, this plan will change many times before I actually get out to the garden. It always does.
one square=1'
I'm worried about how I can get a load of compost by March 1. Mr. Granny is not going to want to take the canopy off the Ranger, as we'll have to have it on when we head back to Arizona to pack up and move our belongings. I'm so dependent upon the rich dairy compost I get from a local nursery. Last year I bought the leaf and twig instead of the dairy, and my garden didn't do so well. Since I'll be building all new beds this spring, I MUST have a load of poo!
*Update, since I wrote this last night....Mr. Granny says the canopy is coming off, and I will get my cow poo! I love Mr. Granny.
*Update, since I wrote this last night....Mr. Granny says the canopy is coming off, and I will get my cow poo! I love Mr. Granny.
Great garden plan. I need to do that too. I've been procrastinating as there are few spots where I HAVEN'T planted spinach in my garden. Darn Leaf Miners.
ReplyDeleteAs for your pooblem, will they deliver larger quantities? Here if you order 5 yeards, they deliver for free, or used to. You could see if folks wanted to share the load then. Just thinking. Lastly, you could rent a trailer for a day. Get the dairy if that worked best for you. Don't settle for anything less for your garden!
Wow, I'm a spreadsheet gal and a novice gardener, so I love to see your garden calendar all spelled out. What zone are you in? I can't remember what search led me here, but I enjoy reading you blog, especially the canine element. And hooray for Mr. Granny-gotta get that load of poo! Regards, Michele www.motherofpearls.wordpress.com
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Granny,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for agreeing to get Granny her poo. If Granny isn't happy, none of us are happy.
I'm thinking Mr. Granny, you got off easy. Many girls demand diamonds and pearls - you did good by grabbing the good lookin' gal who just wants poo.
Mr. Granny, I'm really counting on Granny to motivate me to get thru my gardening season. Do you think you can get her double-poo? Or, at least get her the poo from the best poo'ers?
Thanks, Mr.Granny, I'm sure you understand my position.
A gardener by mistake,
Farmer
I love Mr. Granny too! LOL
ReplyDeleteOnly four tomatoes? I bet you'll be shoehorning those tomato plants into every nook and cranny.
I like how you have a couple of beds with hot weather plants in the center. I should do that. Right now I have two very long raised beds, with cold weather plants in one and hot weather going in the other. But that way, a whole bed doesn't get any use in the early spring. I like your plan.
Love the spreadsheet for your seeds...I need to do one like it (I forget what I already have and end up reordering the same thing!)
ReplyDeleteAnd..Wow! I didn't know you could share documents in Google! I've been working on a spreadsheet I'd like to share and didn't know how...thanks!!
Sinfonian, leaf miners are a problem here, too. I always end up pulling out my early spinach before it's time, but we usually get quite a good harvest before the miners ruin it.
ReplyDeleteThe nursery charges $20 for a yard of poo, but $50 to deliver. We'll take off the canopy and haul it ourselves ;-)
********
Motherofpearls, I think I'm in zone 7 (or 6B). There are too many different zone charts, and my planting "bible" (Crockett's Victory Garden) has an outdated one. I just go by my last frost date of May 1, and my fall frost date of October 10.
********
Farmer, Mr. Granny said "You're welcome". That was after he quit laughing.
********
Alison, only four determinate tomato plants. The indeterminates will go in the north garden and around the patio, as usual. You didn't really think I'd only plant four tomatoes, you silly girl?
********
Deb Fitz, you can also get the spreadsheet to show in the blog, if you know how. I had one last year, but Dan at Urban Veggie Garden had to help me, and now I've lost the directions. Oh well, just clicking is fine, and I don't have to worry about resizing it to fit the blog template.
Gosh Granny, your east garden is almost as big as my WHOLE garden...I like the layout. Are you gonna have to replace all the lumber that encloses the beds?
ReplyDeleteEG, I'm not going to enclose these beds. I found the boxes to be too restricting, and I think they get too hot and too full of insects here. I'll still have boxes in the north garden though, for the berries and tomatoes, and I'll leave the small box in the east garden so I can cover it for some winter plantings.
ReplyDeleteYay for Mr Granny! Your plan looks wonderful. I have not tried growing cabbage yet. What kind you grow?
ReplyDeleteLiisa, I've always had good luck with Red Acre and Golden Acre, so I grow them year after year. I also have some Gonzales seed left from last year (thanks, Daphne) that will be planted this year. They are miniature heads, very good for closer spacing in a square foot garden. I used to grow early Jersey Wakefield, and they were good, too. This year I'm just trying to use up my older seeds.
ReplyDeleteGranny, I'm so happy that Mr. Granny is going to get you your poo! I think that the plots are going to need many loads of poo too
ReplyDeleteYou've got some helpful information here, and I appreciate it! You are also a lucky woman. If I want cow poo here, I have to bring in the bagged kind. No hauling!
ReplyDeleteRobin, there's nothing like a good poo ;-)
ReplyDelete********
Dianefaith, I'm lucky to have a nursery less than a mile from me, and they have piles and piles of beautifully composted poo for sale! At $20 for a yard (two full loads in the Ranger), it's so worth it. Living in town like I do, I don't really have room for a lot of composting. My small compost barrel doesn't provide me with nearly enough for my garden.
I so wish I could get some poo. I have a lead though. Maybe it will work out. Most of the places do the old leaf and twig compost. I would rather buy some good compost if I'm buying compost, but I'll take what I can get.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, no more leaf and twig for me. It just didn't make for great gardening last year. The two years previous, I planted in straight cow poo (well composted) and you know how well my garden produced!
ReplyDeleteLove your garden layout! I should make one too, my beds are always overplanted!
ReplyDeleteChristian, I start every gardening season with good intentions, but the plans always change several times before actual planting takes place! Just once, I'd like to stick with my plan.
ReplyDeleteYou know... nothing really beats a good load of crap. Composted crap that is! LOL!
ReplyDeleteGlad Mr. Granny came to your rescrue and you will get your load of poo. :D
The garden plan looks great!
Ha-ha Kitsap, what good timing! I just blogged about getting my WOOT! Bag of Crap!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a nice garden to come! I'm not buying many seeds this year either, I'm over loaded as it is. I'll look up on how to embed the spreadsheet, if I recall you just have to copy and paste a code from the file.
ReplyDeleteDan, I couldn't even find the code! Their site has changed since I used it last. That's OK, it's just as easy to have people click on the link.
ReplyDeleteThe compost is important! I saw an ad recently for someone who would deliver a dump truck load of composted manure for $75 but they were a little far away. I would have paid for that in a heartbeat!
ReplyDeleteBethany, I'd be really happy for a dump truck full for that price. Mr. Granny would probably be upset when it got piled in his driveway, though. We can't even get the Ranger into our back yard any more. Believe me, I tried :-O
ReplyDeleteYay Mr. Granny!!! You know, it doesn't matter where you are from; America to Zimbabwe, good poo is so important. It might not be what makes the world go 'round, but it's what is made all around the world! And that's the straight poop.
ReplyDelete~~Lori
So glad you're back Granny! And I LOOOVE your garden calendar. I can follow your schedule since I'm just across the river, and this will be my first year starting my own seeds! I'll be planting my cabbage and broccoli this weekend, just bought my grow light and seed starting mix today.
ReplyDeleteCan I ask which nursery you get your poo at? Mac's? I still have 2 more boxes to get built in the next month and I need to start filling my 2 already built. I'm going to be trying the Mel's Mix idea from square-foot gardening, but wow vermiculite is expensive!!!
Sheena, yes I get the poo at Mac's. Have you tried Columbia Grain and Feed (corner of Lewis & 21st.) for Vermiculite? They sell the great big bags there for about $25, I think. I happened to find an 8 Qt. size at either Lowe's or Home Depot last year...I think it was HD. I'm just using mine for starting seedlings, so didn't nee the giant economy size. I didn't fool with Mel's Mix, as it seems to dry out way too fast in our hot weather. I just used Mac's dairy compost straight for my raised beds, although I would love to have mixed it with some vermiculite. I couldn't find anything but the tiny bags of it at the time.
ReplyDeleteThat is good to think about, I don't want to be out watering the garden 5 times/day due to our heat (but that is what I have kids for, right?). I'm just trying to cut weeds, I have horrible thistles. Of course my irrigation water will not help that. I'll check into the vermiculite, that is an excellent price, it is $40/large bag at Mac's. It would be a lot cheaper just to do the compost and throw in some vermiculite and a little peat moss. My husband will like that! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSheena, we get weed seeds through our irrigation water too, but it's mostly crabgrass. That's not difficult to spot and pull out.
ReplyDelete