Blog Author
jillh
(view profile)
Recent Entries to this Blog Spring has almost made it to Southern Ontario
Posted: 19 Apr 2011
The Birdhouses are Almost Ready
Posted: 24 Apr 2010
Scrub a Dub Dub, 4 Gourds in the Tub!
Posted: 19 Mar 2010
Gourds in Winter
Posted: 13 Mar 2010
Maturing Gourds October 09
Posted: 09 Oct 2009

All Entries
 


Welcome to my flower and vegetable garden blog!

Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:48 am

It all started with our wish to lessen our footprint on the planet and with all those beautiful photos in Harrowsmith Country Life magazine.
My husband suggested that we plant a huge vegetable garden. I did some research, read that it is good to "start small" and convinced him that since I would be the one working in the garden I got to pick the size! It turned out to be an 8x12 foot cedar raised bed with 2x8 and 2x12 sides and a 4x4 on top. 4 vertical 4x4 were set into the ground in concrete in each corner and it was all attached to together. Next, sides were made to keep out the weiner dog, kids, bunnies and gopher who live in or around our yard. (It took us a while to figure out who kept eating our tomatoes when we last had them. They all had bites out of the bottoms only....weiner dog...). Some gingerbread from the garage that had never been used added a decorative touch and makes it really pretty to look at.
3 yards of triple mix arrived just before the Victoria Day long week-end, the bed was lined with weed fabric (to keep our good soil from leaching down into the sandy soil below) and I started planting. What seemed like copious amounts of space between plants and made them look even smaller than they were has turned out to be, well, you know, just barely enough space!
I put in tomato, pepper and brussells sprouts plants and carrot, beet, snap and snow pea and bush bean seeds and 5 seed potatoes. 2 weeks later I had to plant more beets and carrots (I used old seeds) and then added zucchini and 4 more tomato plants to another garden that came from the extra soil and wood. I'm glad we have that extra space now!
In early July this is what our garden looked like:


by mid-July it was even bigger!


We were eating lettuce all through June and July and in mid July we had our first full meal of vegetables from our own garden. Here's what we had:

It is now August 1st and we've had 2 meals of beans, 3 meals of beets, the lettuce is finished, the zucchini will be ready to start picking in the next few days, the tomatoes are starting to ripen, there are snow peas every day, enough for the kids to snack on or to add to a salad and we dig up the odd potato just because it's so much fun to root around under them!


The flowers this year are wonderful too. With so much regular rain they are lasting a long time and have huge blooms. Here are some sweet peas:

and my 5 year old garden which is really full this year:




Last edited: Wed Aug 06, 2008 12:59 am

This blog entry has been viewed 1050 times
You're reading one of many blogs on GardenStew.com.
Register for free and start your own blog today.




Leave a Comment


Login or register to leave a comment.