It’s Planting Time!
This is the seventh installment in the 5×5 Garden Challenge Series. Every Wednesday I’ll be posting about the challenge, covering topics that will help all the new gardeners get started. If you haven’t heard about the challenge head on over to the 5×5 Challenge Website, we’ll also be putting up a page here that pulls in all the 5×5 Challenge posts.
This past weekend I seeded my 5×5 Challenge Garden. I started off by measuring off square foot sections of the raised bed. This isn’t a necessary step, you can plant your garden without making neat rows. I find it makes spacing easier when I measure it off in this way. I started by laying a few yard sticks on the sides, then I simply drug a dowel from one side to the next to make my grid.
Back when I first started gardening in raised beds, I use tacks on the side of the beds and strung twine between the make a semi-permanent grid.
Since I had made up a plan earlier (see this post for my 5×5 Challenge Garden Plan), it only took me a few minutes to get all the seeds in the ground. One of the reasons I contacted Renee’s Garden about being a part of this challenge, is because she specializes in seeds for the small home gardeners. Many of her seed packets contain multiple varieties, the seeds are even color coded to make planting easy.
When you plant your challenge garden, use the spacing guides on the back of the packet. Since you’re growing a small garden, you only need to take note of the spacing guidelines mentioned between seeds. Disregard the row spacing requirements. Back when I was planting a few small raised beds, I had Mr Chiots make me a few planting guides with different spacing that were a square foot. As they grow, noticed whether this works in your soil. If your soil is great, you can get away with planting things closer. If your soil is lean, you might need to go a little farther apart. Using the guidelines on the back is a great starting point.
I noticed earlier this week that some of the seeds were already germinating. Of course the chickens managed to nab a few of the bean sprouts before I noticed, but they only got a few.
Yesterday afternoon, I even headed down to my neighbor’s house to help her plant her 5×5 Garden.
Any seeding questions from our newbies or advice from our seasoned gardeners?
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Fill-Er-Up
This is the sixth installment in the 5×5 Garden Challenge Series. Every Wednesday I’ll be posting about the challenge, covering topics that will help all the new gardeners get started. If you haven’t heard about the challenge head on over to the 5×5 Challenge Website, we’ll also be putting up a page here that pulls in all the 5×5 Challenge posts.
Last night things had dried out enough for me to fill up the 5×5 Challenge Garden in the front yard. I didn’t bother with any special raised bed mix. In the past when I had raised beds, I used Mel’s Mix from Square Foot Gardening. I wasn’t happy with the mix and found that simply adding a sandy loam soil to a raised bed worked best. It retains moisture better and my plants grew much better in real soil.
As you can see my garden helper was on hand to survey my work and make sure I was doing it properly.
After filling it up, I had grand plans of planting all my seeds. It’s finally warm enough here to not worry too much about frost. Then the mosquitos started buzzing in my ear.
I’ll get the entire garden planted tomorrow, following my handy planned out guide of course. It sure is nice to finally be planting something. I can’t wait to see how well everything does, will we have any seeds germinating already by next week?
When’s your last frost date? Have you planted your heat loving crops in the garden yet?
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It’s Not a Race
This is the fifth installment in the 5×5 Garden Challenge Series. Every Wednesday I’ll be posting about the challenge, covering topics that will help all the new gardeners get started. If you haven’t heard about the challenge head on over to the 5×5 Challenge Website, we’ll also be putting up a page here that pulls in all the 5×5 Challenge posts.
This week I had great intentions of mixing up the soil to fill my beautiful timberframe raised bed built by Mr Chiots, but….I haven’t been feeling well for the past week. Tired, achey, nauseous, out of sorts, just not quite 100% myself. I actually spent the entire day last Thursday in bed, if you know me, you know how out of character this is for me. Generally you won’t find me sitting still. I think I’m just tired, worn out, and overworked. About the time I started gaining my energy back again, it started to rain.
As a result, my raised bed sits empty, the seed packets are still on the table, and none of my garden tasks were checked off the list. That’s OK though, because gardening is not a race. The beauty if gardening is that it is very forgiving. Plants often don’t mind being planted a week late. One of the only things you really need to stay on top of in gardening is the weeding. So I’m giving myself a few days off, catching up on all my office work, and generally just trying to rest up for the busy days ahead. Remember, gardening is about enjoying it, it’s a hobby. Don’t get too caught up in all you have to do and make it unpleasant. There are times when you really do need to take a few days off!
Do you ever have to force yourself to take time away from garden chores?
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Planning
This is the fourth installment in the 5×5 Garden Challenge Series. Every Wednesday I’ll be posting about the challenge, covering topics that will help all the new gardeners get started. If you haven’t heard about the challenge head on over to the 5×5 Challenge Website, we’ll also be putting up a page here that pulls in all the 5×5 Challenge posts.
When it comes to gardening, taking the time to plan where everything goes will save you some hassle and confusion in the future. If you’re new gardening and you only have a small space it’s not quite as necessary, but it’s a good habit to get into. That way you don’t end up with too many plants for the space that you have. It also helps you to take into consideration the area needed by each plant.
Last week I sat down to plan out where everything would be going in my 5×5 Challenge Garden. I put the tall tomato vines in the back with the zucchini plants going in front of them. If I have space I’ll tuck basil on the sides of the bed beside the zucchini.
Planning things out will also help if you want to plant in succession. So when the scallions are finished producing in summer, you can plan on planting lettuce or spinach in their place. When the lettuce is done in early summer, perhaps beans or radishes can be planted in their spot. Taking a little time to plan will save you much frustration and streamline things later in the gardening season.
Do you make a formal plan for your garden?
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Keep It Simple
This is the fourth installment in the 5×5 Garden Challenge Series. Every Wednesday I’ll be posting about the challenge, covering topics that will help all the new gardeners get started. If you haven’t heard about the challenge head on over to the 5×5 Challenge Website, we’ll also be putting up a page here that pulls in all the 5×5 Challenge posts.
It seems like I’m always seeing advertisements for different gardening products on every website I go to and in every catalog that arrives in my mailbox. When it comes to gardening, I like to keep things simple. You don’t need all the latest and greatest gardening gadgets. Instead of buying a bunch of stuff you don’t need, invest in a good trowel.
I also find a bucket invaluable in the garden. It comes in handy for carrying soil amendments, plants, tools, weeds, and freshly harvested vegetables.
In addition to my trowel and bucket, I also use a watering can all the time. A big one, with a nice big crown that spreads the water far and wide.
This is pretty much all I ever use in the garden, especially on a day to day basis. If you’re just getting started, don’t spend a lot of money, keep it simple!
What three garden tools would you recommend to a beginning gardener?
