Last fall, I got really excited about having a vegetable garden. I looked into how to build a raised bed, got a book about vegetable gardening, and decided what I wanted to plant and found out when to plant it (because our winters are so mild here, there are a good number of things you can grow in the fall and a few things that can be planted before the winter for the next spring). Eddie and I got some wood, paint and dirt, and built a beautiful red raised bed to put in our backyard. Then, our dog decided she loved what she thought was her new personal sand box/bed, and we found out how expensive cute fences are (womp, womp).
Well, a few weeks ago, my wonderful husband put a fence in for my garden, I got some seeds and some compost*, and a friend came over and helped me break up the soil, mix it with the compost, and plant my veggies (thanks, Alison!)
I ended up planting basil, garlic, green onions, onions, peas, and potatoes. I didn’t do as much researching this time, and ended up planting the peas right in the middle of the bed without realizing they grow to be 6′ tall – yikes! we put in a trellis, and we’ll see how the potatoes behind them do when they start blocking some sun. You may notice our raised bed is not quite full. We’d lost some dirt since filling it in the fall due to our puppy playing/digging in it, and even with the added compost didn’t have enough to fill the whole bed. Since its my first time gardening, I figured I’d wait to buy more dirt until next season if I find this works well for us.
It’s been 10 days since planting, and already everyone but the onions have started popping up!
The peas started coming up after only 5 days, and are still by far the largest plants (they are supposed to reach 6 feet in three months).
The basil started popping up after about seven days. They’re still pretty tiny, but more up popping up every day.
I planted four heads of garlic, and first saw the first one today – 10 days after planting everything.
The first potato plant popped up yesterday (after 9 days), and another two showed up today. The green onions have also started growing, but they are very skinny and very short. Looking forward to seeing the onions, and seeing all these guys keep growing. And, of course, having some delicious home grown vegetables 🙂
The first few days of watering I just used a normal hose, and it tossed up a lot of the dirt. Since a few of the smaller seeds (basil, green onions, and onions) were planted only about 1/4″ below the surface, I was worried I disturbed too many of the seeds for them to grow well. So far the basil has been doing great, but we’ll see if the green onions and onions end up doing well. I eventually got a fan spray attachment for our hose, which waters the plants much more gently.
*If you want some compost, see if your city offers any. I was surprised to find that mine has a composting facility where you can drive up and get as much or as little as you like. We have a truck, and they used a big machine to just scoop it into the back for us. We got 500 lbs. (not just for this garden) for $7 – which seemed like a pretty great deal. Way easier than making/maintaining a compost bin of our own.
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