We finally planted our garden last week. In Colorado, you really have to wait until Mother's Day because anything could happen. It has been known to snow in June. The hubs is in charge of the garden, and I'm in charge of the herbs. This is our third year doing it, and we've learned a few things.
1. We can't grow corn. The growing season is too short here, and we don't get enough sun in our backyard.
2. We have a raised bed, and it's important that the soil is flush with the top of the bed. Otherwise you create shade. Shade is not good for growing veggies.
3. Green beans and green onions seem to take over our garden. We always plant more than we need.
4. It's best to start watermelon inside in January or February and then transplant them. We already have two watermelons that are the size of a small bouncy ball. This is better than we've had!
5. We buy tomato plants instead of starting from seed. We buy herbs from a plant instead of seed, too.
Here's what we planted this year: lots of basil (probably my favorite thing ever), parsley, and rosemary. The rosemary is from last year...I kept it inside all winter.
1. We can't grow corn. The growing season is too short here, and we don't get enough sun in our backyard.
2. We have a raised bed, and it's important that the soil is flush with the top of the bed. Otherwise you create shade. Shade is not good for growing veggies.
3. Green beans and green onions seem to take over our garden. We always plant more than we need.
4. It's best to start watermelon inside in January or February and then transplant them. We already have two watermelons that are the size of a small bouncy ball. This is better than we've had!
5. We buy tomato plants instead of starting from seed. We buy herbs from a plant instead of seed, too.
Here's what we planted this year: lots of basil (probably my favorite thing ever), parsley, and rosemary. The rosemary is from last year...I kept it inside all winter.
New herbs this year include chives, sage, and thyme. There's a few celery seeds in the pot, but I'm really not holding out much hope for them.
This is our main bed, and we have three tomato plants in the back (Roma, cherry, and an heirloom), jalapeno plant on the right in front (the hubs started growing this from seed inside in January), and next to it is an orange bell pepper plant. The rest we have in seeds: butter lettuce, iceberg lettuce, kale, green onions, walla walla onions, and green beans. I think that's it...this bed gets water through some mini sprinkler heads. We also put up a small fence around this bed to keep the dogs out. Now if only that worked for the bugs!
In this barrel, we have vidalia onions, watermelon (started from seed inside), and French fingerling potatoes. We have no idea when or how to harvest the potatoes or onion. Tips? This barrel is on our drip line.
And last but not least is our barrel of strawberries. These come back every year, so it's pretty low maintenance. Every year we get a bigger, better crop, too. These get a drip line, too.
Check out those bad boys. Last year we bought a plant, and our watermelon were the size of tennis balls. We're hoping for a basketball size this year!
