Have you started your garden? Depending on where you live it may be time to start your sprouts. We should have started them a few weeks ago but of course life! This past weekend we went ahead and started to get the plans in motion. I have designed a plan and spent the weekend laying out markers to designate where I want my paths and beds to go. This is a much bigger step than years in the past, this year I am trying my hardest to have a plan and stick to it.
In years past we have had a small plan but I seem to ignore it right away plus being so busy, nothing gets accomplished, except potatoes, we always plant potatoes. We end up with so many potatoes that the menu is normally a protein and potatoes for months. This year though I am on it. I have a grand plan, with tons of beds, a seating area, places for water buckets, and even a rudimentary bed rotating plan. I am totally on top of it this year, I tell myself as the little voice in the back of my head laughs at my goals knowing that all good plans must fail before they come to fruition.
What does the plan entail you may ask? Below is the Grand Plan (which btw my husband laughed at because as he said “who is doing all this work?” point taken.) This is where I am starting, with the plan on paper to motivate (or discourage) me. Then I am going to actually map it out in the garden.
Step one began a few weekends ago. I headed out with whatever helpers I could find, mostly just me and Spotify, and began to lay out the paths. I decided I really needed to take some string and some stakes and mark off where the paths were going to be this year. After which I went ahead and marked out my beds. I am trying to do a better job of rotating crops this year as you can see from my above diagram. The numbers on the beds tell me which type of crop I want to plant in which bed and which beds are resting and only being planted with various cover crops to help increase the fertility of the soil in years to come.
There are certain plants that I know we need to get in the ground this year:
- Kale
- Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Potatoes
- Green Beans
- Cucumbers (hopefully without the worms this year)
- Garlic (not sure I have ordered that yet)
- Lettuce
- Black Beans
- Melons
- Carrots
- Corn
- Herbs
I am sure there are more but those are the most important right now. So we will begin by starting some of those indoors. Which again according to all the books and veterans I am late one, but hey better late than never right?
To start our seeds indoors we will be creating soil blocks. Have you done this before? It is reminiscent of building a sandcastle on the beach, you know when you pack the wet sand into a bucket and dump it out in the exact shape you want. Making a soil block is very similar. You make/or buy a soil mixture that you wet and pack into your blocker, then you push the handle down and pop out comes nicely shaped blocks with the perfect little indentation for your seed.
Other than getting the seeds started we have also bought some plants that were already cute baby plants to put in the ground and a tea plant. Yes you heard that right a tea plant (more on this guy later.) We also did some much-needed maintenance on the garden and began to lay out what will be a seating area.
The last thing that we have done so far is getting our potatoes set out. This year I am doing things a tad differently with my potatoes. For starters, I am putting them out in egg cartons in a sunny area to start to chit. Once they do I will cut them into smaller chunks and then let them heal before planting. I plan on planting them in a few ways this year, both in the ground and in 5-gallon buckets so we shall see how that goes.
Where are you in your garden adventure? Further along, then we are or farther behind? Either way now is as good as a time as any to get started on something. Post below and let me know what you have going on or what kind of plans you have for your garden this year. I know we can all learn and get inspiration from each other in this adventure.
