Spring is well and truly here – heck, by the temperature it seems like summer already – and I have no more excuses. We’ve upgraded from the sad little raised beds between the house and the shed, shaded by both buildings and the tall elms of our neighborhood, to these 20″ tall beauties in the sunny front yard. Filled with Soilutions soil and set up with an irrigation system, these 4-foot by 8-foot babies are a top-of-the-line home gardening setup.
Talk about pressure! Brown thumb, begone!
I have a dream for my little garden, and it is this: I want it to be both bountiful and beautiful. I dream of flourishing tomatoes vigorously climbing their tomato ladders, and eggplants and peppers twining up rainbow spirals, and cucumbers dangling from A-frame trellises, and beans flowering in teepees, all undergirded with the blossoms of marigold and borage and nasturtiums. Maybe a few violas and some herbs.
My plan is for a vertical garden with lots of companion planting. But I don’t know anything about companion planting – or much else about gardening, to be honest – which is why my floor is littered with gardening books right now, like Square Foot Gardening and The Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook and Carrots Love Tomatoes. I hope some of them will be helpful.
Stay tuned for updates as I plan and plant and, hopefully, harvest and cook. And if you have any favorite gardening resources, please share!
Talk to me!