If you can't tell of the above pic of me and my pinkish hue, I've spent a lot of time outdoors over the last week or so. Spring time is slowly seeping back into the climate, and that means it's time to get the garden going again. Last year was a huge success, and as a total rookie I had no idea it was going to do so well. Well, it's time to get things ready to go for this year.
One thing I'm doing, and the focus of this project's post, is the addition of some new space. Like I said, last year was amazing in terms of sheer scope of what was pulled out of the garden. We didn't buy a single tomato, jalapeño, habañero, cucumber, banana pepper, or green pepper for months. Not to mention all the jalapeños I canned. I'm still eating on those, as recent as last weekend. So with the extra space I'll be adding room for another four plants or more, which is should be exponentially to the bounty come harvest time.
Last year my tomatoes went double-gonzo crazy with growth. Here's a pic of them out of control, and I mentioned in that caption something about tomato cages, well this year I've learned my lesson and will be using these cages from day one.
The new area here I've put between the two beds from last year. I don't have the good soil in there yet, so it doesn't look like much, but these will be nice and rich, with plenty of depth for the plants' roots. As a disturbing side note, you'll see some white 'pebbles' in the beds on the left, well those aren't pebbles, they're Corn Pops cereal, and no, they're apparently not biodegradable. Kind of makes you think about what happens when you eat them, huh? They were stale a couple of weeks ago so I thought I'd throw them off the deck above for the birds. Turns out the birds were too good for the pops!
Everything lined up, ready for planting
A closeup of the new beds
You can see the rectangle of dying grass between the concrete and the wooden stakes I made out with weed killer the other week. I haven't built the walls for it yet, but blocking in this area will be one more bed. It's a shallow bed, as you can see, but that's all right because it will be used as an herb bed, something more permanent than last year's pots.
Safety violations abound...yes, this is an 'action' shot to boot
Good luck with your garden ...... I hope mine does as well as yours for sure !
ReplyDeleteIt's refreshing to see someone actually growing plants, as opposed to someone sending Facebook spam to me saying that they grew some plant in Farmtown or something.
ReplyDeleteWe have herbs in the green house at the moment.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joe! Yours will do well, gamers that garden have a special knack!
ReplyDelete@Derina: Sounds good, I don't know what I'll be growing, but as you can see from the size of my herb bed, I've got plenty of room!
@Mike: That's freakin' hilarious, I know totally what you mean! That and Mafia Wars spam, arrrgh!
So Corn Pops should be avoided as birds will not eat them. I will remember that. Speaking of Spring we had some faint snow flakes float by this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and kids continue to try to find things that will grow on our apartment balcony. They have, so far, failed miserably.
ReplyDeleteNice set up. I get inspired to get may yard/flowers and such looking good this time of year, then spend August trying desperately to keep the yard alive in the Southern Heat!
ReplyDeleteI'm calling OSHA regarding that last photo.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the garden!
Thanks for all the continued comments everyone!
ReplyDelete@Brad: Yup, Corn Pops = Unnatural...avoid at all costs!
@Eli: What about just some simple herbs 'n such?
@Bill: Tell me about it, I'm in the south too, and it's like a rainforest in the early summer, which is good, but then it kicks it on up to eleven!
@Christian: I would say I wasn't really thinking, but that's kind of obvious now isn't it?
I hear toes make great fertiliser ;)
ReplyDeleteWe had a nice spell of weather over here in the UK a couple of weeks ago, thought it'd be time to start getting back out in the garden - alas, the last week has been horrible. Hopefully I'll get some stuff done tomorrow - your raised beds are looking great! I need to find some hardy varieties of tomato, I don't have the space in the greenhouse...
@Christian - what you don't see is the eight empty cans of Budweiser just outside the picture.
ReplyDelete@Mike - that's why, instead of playing mafia wars, I just kill real people and post it on Facebook ;-)