Spring 2020: Garden Roundup-Veggies

I’ve had a lot of time during this pandemic to plan and tend to this year’s garden. I can’t say I’ve minded this part, I’ve actually really enjoyed the time to get back to basics in the garden.

Like usual, I started a number of vegetables in the house from seeds and shopped for the rest at the local nursery (shout out to Vern Goers Greenhouse that was thankfully open, with appropriate restrictions of course).

We had a bad cold snap in early May, so I kept everything nice and cozy under grow-lights in the house and in the mini greenhouse on the porch.

I am so looking forward to a summer of fresh vegetables straight from the garden.

What did I grow this year from seeds in the house?

Red Russian Kale* (Botanical Interests)
Tom Thumb Butterhead Lettuce* (Botanical Interests)
Emerald Delight Summer Squash (Botanical Interests)
Lemon Drop Summer Squash (Burpee)
Squash, Summer, Fort Knox Hybrid (Burpee)
Lacinto Kale* (Burpee)
Fort Knox Summer Squash (Burpee)
Sweet Success Cucumber(Burpee)
Telegraph Cucumber (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
Green Tatsoi* (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)

What seeds am I starting outside?

Sugar Daddy Snap Pea (Botanical Interests)
Danvers 126 Carrot (Botanical Interests)
Desperado Bush Bean (Burpee)
Autumn Giant Leek (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
Carentan Leek (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
St. Valery Carrot (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
plus all the * items above as a second harvest

What plants did I buy?

Redarling Brussel Sprouts
Sun Gold Tomato
Early Girl Bush Tomato
Juliet Tomato
Sweet Million Cherry Tomato
San Marzano Tomato
California Wonder Sweet Pepper
North Star Sweet Pepper
Habanero Peppers
Kohlrabi

Here’s some of the seedlings I grew in the house, all ready to plant. Some I planted in one of the raised beds, others in my new fabric root bags.

What did I try new this year?

Tatsoi! I didn’t even know this was a thing until it popped up on an Instagram post by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. We’ve had to change up our diet a bit to eliminate high oxalate foods like rhubarb, spinach and swiss chard because of kidney stones. 🥺 So out of the garden they went. Instead, I am growing an abundance of kale (which I’m not a huge fan of but learning to like it), lettuce, microgreens, sprouts, brussel sprouts and this new tatsoi green.

According to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, “Tatsoi is nicknamed Vitamin Green, and rightfully so. This gourmet green is known as one of the richest sources of vitamin C and it is replete with other incredible vitamins, minerals, and health-promoting compounds! It’s super sweet and easy to love, with a mild and refreshing flavor. The low-growing rosettes are comprised of tiny, glossy spoon-shaped leaves that boast crisp and juicy mouth-feel.” As a bonus for us, it’s related to cabbage/mustard, so low in oxalates! I can’t wait to try it out.

What else is new?

Lots more fabric grow bags! I couldn’t really expand my gardens very easily, so went in a different direction. I bought a variety of sized bags from A.M. Leonard and GeoPot and a LOT of potting soil/compost/peat. Watch for a future post on this adventure. I have so much more garden space, I’m making another trip to the nursery!

One more thing…

My herb garden has always been on the north side of the house. right outside the side door. Very convenient. The herbs grew “fine”, but they really could have used more sun. I finally decided to move them since I had the time to think where they should go.

They are a little further away near the grill, but still convenient. Definitely will get a lot more sun. On either side are the coleus pots I plant every year. They add some pretty interest to the area and attract pollinators. I started then from seeds inside this year instead of buying them. Much less expensive and easier under the circumstances. But I think I should have started them earlier. They’re a little small right now, but with some sun and heat, they’ll take off.

How is your vegetable garden this year?

Finally, Planting Season is Beginning

Finally, I can stop thinking about last year’s garden and start thinking about this year’s. I’ve ordered all my seeds, (maybe) and printed out my growing resources from Botanical Interests.

I’ve used these garden resources for years to organize my plantings, both for indoor and outdoor sowing. I thought they didn’t have them this year, but instead they made them part of this journal package. Phew! I really rely on them to know when to plant and keep track of what I’ve planted, when and where.

I’m finally ready to get started sowing the inside seeds. I grow some things myself and rely on my local nursery for the rest (shout out to Vern Goers Greenhouse!). Along with wonderful annuals and perennials, they have an amazing selection of peppers, tomatoes and other vegetables. I went to visit them the other day to see how things are coming along. Looks like it’ll be a little while until they’re ready, but it is only the beginning of April.

While I was there I did get some beautiful pansies to brighten the porch.

What did I sow today?

Flowers:

Sweet Allysum (Burpee)
Mexican Sunflower “Sundance” (Tithonia) (Burpee). The Tithonia is a new annual for me. Jason at Gardeninacity, has raved about them for years so I thought I’d give them a try.
Snapdragons, Magic Carpet Blend (Botanical Interests)
Snapdragons, Night and Day (Botanical Interests)

Vegetables:

Lettuce, Buttercrunch (Territorial Seeds)
Lettuce, Looseleaf Blend (Burpee)
Microgreens, Mild Mix, Savory Mix and Peas for Shoots (Botanical Interests)

I was hoping to get some cold weather seeds sowed this weekend, but my WI garden looked like this:

Still had to get some new dirt turned into the beds at home, so got that done this afternoon. Next post, I’ll let you know what I planted!

Gardening: All in the Family

For as long as I can remember my mom had vegetable and flower gardens, sometimes big, sometimes small. So did my grandparents. All this interest in growing things rubbed off on me and hopefully I’ll pass it on to my kids. With that in mind, I had my mom and daughter take us on a tour of their June gardens. First my mom, Peggy, in northern Michigan.

So lucky to have the space of all these raised beds (check out all the raspberries in the back!).

Petunia garden protected from the rabbits

Zinnias!

Hummingbirds are enjoying the flowers right now. Soon they’ll be looking for some extra food.

A more natural garden.

A lovely visitor–Tiger Swallowtail

Salad in a bag!

Succulents! This is a creative work in progress. I can’t wait to see what she does with this. I know she’s got some great ideas.

My daughter Emily lives in an apartment with some friends downtown. When we were talking earlier in the spring, she was complaining about the price of tomatoes. Soon after that, I happened to see a great looking potted patio tomato plant that would fit on her porch.

She couldn’t have been more excited and has taken lovingly care of this plant. It gets a hello and a glass of water from the mason jar every morning. Recently I got a text that read “Mom! 2 of my tomatoes hatched!” I hope they grow big, red and juicy for her. I think she’ll be hooked then.

Do you have someone who inspired you, or have you inspired anyone else to garden?

May Vegetable Garden

I’ve been so busy in the garden, I haven’t had much time to write about it. Hopefully I can catch up in the next few days. Everything is in that wonderful, lush spring phase. Well, almost everything, but more on that another day.

My raised vegetable beds are looking great. I got my first harvest yesterday and we enjoyed a fresh vegetable side dish and a few small treats. Most of the early seeds I planted in the side raised bed didn’t come up, but the spinach and a few stragglers survived the harsh spring.

In that bed, while the few early things are finishing up, I’ve planted tomatoes, onion starts, sugar snap peas, lots of squash, zucchini and cucumbers. All the “messy” garden characters are nicely hidden on the side of the house with plenty of space to grow. All seem to be getting started nicely.

The new beds are also flourishing with vegetables, herbs and even some flowers.

The “left” garden has swiss chard, kale, spinach, lettuce, bush beans, cabbage, green peppers, sunflowers and nasturtiums in it. I expect it’ll get a little more shade as the summer goes on, so maybe the cool weather plants will have a bit of an extended life.

The “right” garden is chock full of more lettuce, radishes, cabbage, green peppers, bush beans, basil, sunflowers and zinnias. In front are marigolds, potted herbs and snapdragons to give the beds some color. I like my herbs in pots to keep them tidy and in place. On the side of the house I have more herbs, including mint. Mint should always be in some type of corralled container to prevent it from taking over.

So far, no complaints on the appearance of the gardens. I’m really trying hard to not let it get unruly. Hopefully the flowers add a burst of color. To further help that, in the background of the gardens I’ve added cosmos and daylilys. This project may turn out to be even nicer than we expected.

Even the strawberry pot is looking great. Nothing like fresh from the vine fruit to remind you of what fruit is supposed to taste like.

My New Raised Beds-Soil

As I wrote in yesterday’s post (My New Raised Beds-Construction), our new raised beds were finished. Next up, filling them with the right mix of soil and compost. First though, we had to get the grass out and the existing soil turned over. I know our grass has quite a bit of thatch, so it would be a pretty thick barrier to the vegetable roots. After breaking it up pretty well, we covered it with newspaper to kill off whatever grass was still alive. No need to remove the paper before filling with dirt, it will just decompose.

The one downside of turning over the sod is the possibility of wire worms. Wire worms are the larvae of click beetles and they live in the soil near the roots of grass. Once disturbed by the digging, they make their way up to the new crops and wreak their havoc. I’m going to assume this is not going to happen…

For my current raised bed, I used a mixture of top soil, mushroom compost and potting soil in a 6:3:1 ratio. I had great success with that, so I’ll use the same mixture in the new beds. I calculated that I needed 32 cf total for both beds. As I was buying the bags of dirt and compost, that seemed like a lot, so I cut that back. I still ended up with a couple of bags too many. As the dirt settles, I’ll need to add some, so I just put it away until I need it. I ended up buying 15 cf of topsoil (actually Home Depot had the Miracle Gro Garden Soil on sale so I bought mostly that), 8 cf of mushroom compost and 3 cf of potting mix.

I cajoled my teen-aged sons into being part of the garden project, and they dumped all that soil and compost into the beds for me. My back sincerely thanks them (My husband was at work, so not around to help either. He did help with the construction part, making this a true family project). I alternated what was put in and spread it around as they were dumping it in. This makes for a really healthy, light soil mixture that will be perfect for vegetables.

All finished and ready to plant. I’ve never had so much vegetable garden space, so I’m really excited to have the space to spread out the plants like they should be, as well as try some new things.

I’m optimistic that freezing temperatures are behind us, and planted the second round of lettuce, beets, swiss chard, spinach, radish. I also started some sunflowers and bush beans.

I just checked the other seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago, and they are just starting to sprout. We’ve had some pretty cold temperatures so it took a little longer than I would have thought.

Did you build any new gardens or see any seedling yet?

My New Raised Beds-Construction

It took a couple of weeks because of the weather and finding the time, but the new raised vegetable beds are finally finished! We had scoped out a site last fall that got a reasonable amount of sun and wouldn’t interfere too much with existing beds, drainage, play space for the kids, etc. Getting full sun on my yard is a bit tricky, but most of the beds will be in full sun mid-summer, and the parts that aren’t, I’ll plant accordingly. After measuring it out, we decided two 4’x6’x8″ beds were the ideal size for the space. Anything more than 4′ wide is too difficult to garden in physically.

I bought corner brackets from Plow and Hearth to simplify the construction of the beds.

Then we went to Home Depot to get lumber. We had planned to use cedar, but they only came in 6″ heights. That just seems too short and doubling was too high and expensive. We researched our options and finally decided on regular pine. While they are not pressure treated, we used them on the other beds and after 3-4 years, they are weathered, but fine. The possibility of eventual rot outweighed the potential toxins in pressure treated wood. To make the job a bit easier, we had Home Depot cut the boards for us for free.

Now the construction began. All the hardware was included in the corner kit, we just had to supply the drill for drilling pilot holes and screwing in all the screw.

One was done!

Only took a couple of hours to build both, and they couldn’t be easier. We lined them up, leveled them and then pushed them into the ground.

Tomorrow–filling the beds.

Garden Season has Officially Begun!

After quite the long winter, I finally have been able to get out in the garden and get started for the season. Woohoo!! Because it’s a little later than usual, we skipped over the garden clean-up temporarily and worked on preparing the vegetable garden, building 2 new raised beds and seed-starting. Normally, with the last frost date being the end of April, I would have liked to get all this started a couple of weeks ago. But, with the weather as awful as it was, and spring break thrown in, this weekend was better than never.

First off, I prepared the current vegetable bed by adding compost to refresh things a bit. I always seem to have trouble finding it early in the spring (and haven’t started making my own yet), so I bought it last fall and left the bags there for spring. Nice to not have to go searching for it this weekend!

Once I got the compost worked into the soil, the garden was ready to add the cold weather seeds. Hopefully, it’s not too late. Looking at the long range forecast, I think I’m fine.

Today I planted rows of:
Beets (Gourmet Blend Organic)
Carrots (Danvers Organic)
Cabbage (Copenhagen)
Lettuce (Tom Thumb Butterhead)
Lettuce (Red Sails Leafy Organic)
Radish (Cherry Belle Organic)
Spinach (Bloomingdale Organic)
Swiss Chard (Bright Lights)

These seeds were all from Botanical Interests. In another week-10 days, I’ll plant a second row of seeds to try and get 2 harvests before the summer heat hits us.

All seed packets give specific instructions as to how and when to to plant the seeds. Most are planted either 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch deep. The 1/4 inch deep seeds I usually spread according to instructions, then just lightly cover with some dirt sprinkled from my hand. You want just a very light cover of dirt. The seeds planted 1/2 inch deep, I’ll push in about fingertip deep and cover. Then water gently.

Later this week, I’ll share the rest of the weekend’s projects!

I had a nice surprise when I went over to the side of the house to start the vegetable garden. My rhubarb was already up and looks beautiful. Both plants have returned, so now I have a 2 yr old and 3 yr old plant that can both be fully harvested. I think I will have plenty to share, so my friends are going to love me!

Did you get out in your garden this weekend?

To Add More Gardens or Not???

I am really in need of a new area for vegetables. For years, I’ve struggled with too many plants in a too small of a place. But, I also don’t have a good spot for adding more vegetable gardens, either due to too much shade or existing plants in the way. So I am contemplating putting 2 new raised beds off the back of the patio in a space that used to house the kids swing set.

View from my patio looking straight out

Right now, this looks out onto half dead red-twig dogwoods that are unfortunately succumbing to some kind of canker. To try and help the dogwoods, we’ve tried to cut back all the old wood, clean up the leaves and last spring did some rejuvenation pruning removing about a third of the branches. No more have died and I’ll do another rejuvenation pruning in the late winter. We’ll see how much longer they last.

But, back to the vegetables. I have been following the sun pattern for most of the summer, and I think this spot will work out. It’s not full sun, but gets good morning and mid-day sun, which is the best I can hope for. I am trying to decide if I should add some trellis work in front to shield it, but in talking to my landscaper, he confirmed my fears that while it will look nice, it will make the area quite shady. Maybe some other kind of less dense fence will work?

So now the question is, can I make this look pretty by adding some flowers, grasses or other interesting features to the area, or will it just turn into another messy vegetable garden? What have you done to “hide” the vegetable garden or do you think they are pretty? I think what my mom has done with her gardens is pretty.

Tag: raised bed gardening