Just a reminder of where we are going with gardening. Harvesting Vegetables
New posts are below this top picture. I will be posting keeping it real photos which are the good and bad parts of gardening. And discussing what has been successful and what has failed so others do not make the same mistakes. Gardening can get costly when things go wrong but be very rewarding when you harvest fresh vegetables from your Front or back yard.
February 8th, 2014
This was a bit overwhelming but we had to start somewhere. We took the keyhole garden apart, dug out all the dirt and carefully removed the gravel from the bottom. My husband did most of this as I pulled weeds from beds.
The young meyer lemon tree looks pretty bad from the freezing temperatures. I dug out many of the coneflowers and transplanted them to other areas.
We decided to make a change in the shape of the large keyhole patio garden (which is posted below on the Feb 7th update). We made three raised patio beds two blocks high with walking space so I can reach all the way around. The original Keyhole garden did good at first but then we had a rollypolly invasion and the rollypolly's actually ate our vegetables. They were everywhere!
Here is what happened. Our garden was called a keyhole because we had a composting area in the middle. It was not the same shape of most keyholes because we used blocks but we did have a small compost hole in the middle. We had composting worms and we fed them but the rollypolly's liked living with the worms and they multiplied by the kazillions! We will not be putting the center compost areas in these new beds.
I pressure washed the blocks and part of the patio. It was actually dark when finished and used our camera without flash where it does that gathering light thing. Crazy how it takes a picture at night and it looks like day.
We put the gravel back in the bottom of each raised bed because that has been working very well in the big keyhole.
I would like to note a few things. The reason we put a keyhole garden on our patio is because we had tried many different ways of gardening in our back yard and everything we did attracted tree roots. The roots would take over and it was so difficult to dig into the beds. The same thing happened with our composting beds. We simply have too many trees in our backyard to garden in the ground. We do grow herbs and perennials in beds but everything must be in pots or on the patio.
We noticed when we dug out the dirt from the keyhole today that the roots on the remaining few vegetables should have enough room with our two block high beds but the perennial lemon balm went all the way down three blocks high and became root bound because it was planted in one of the smaller outer block holes. I will not plant another perennial in these beds. Next year when we replace the soil we will observe how our roots did with the shorter beds.
February 7, 2014
This is Chinese Cabbage
I am chasing the sunshine once again. This worked well in 2011so I will try again.
For me chasing the sun is moving our plants outside during the day when it is above freezing and somewhat warm and setting them in the sunshine. They start off in the backyard for the morning sun and front yard for the afternoon sun. It takes a lot of work but it makes an early harvest so another crop can be planted. I have cool weather vegetables, spinach, onions, carrots and lettuce ready to plant as soon as we get the beds ready. They are sitting out back on the patio right now soaking up a bit of sunshine. We do have two grow lights because we do not have any sunny window sills and I use them when the plants are inside. I would prefer a sunny window sill.
Today I planted zucchini and cucumber seeds in peat pots and I will do the same with them (chasing the sun) when they come up but for much longer because zucchini and cucumbers are warm weather vegetables and do not do well in cold damp weather. In 2011 when I did this we made a bumper crop and filled the bottom of our freezer. I cannot leave them out in the cold so I bring them in and out. Whew! just thinking about it!
We did have a cold frame for the keyhole garden but the plastic fell apart and little pieces went everywhere so we removed it. The other problem was getting enough heat to keep things from freezing.
Another update is the old keyhole garden (above photo) is going to have a makeover. We will be removing the top third layer of blocks to shorten the keyhole. We decided that it would save having to use so much soil and we want to add on and make it bigger. My husband will help me with this project since it is a bit much for me to do alone.
We are removing the strawberry bed and will use these blocks to add on to the patio keyhole garden. I will plant the strawberries in a large container.
Just a reminder of some of the things we grew in the keyhole garden in the past. Some beautiful carrots, lettuces, spinach and cabbages.
February 5, 2014
I am trying something different for our wire hanging baskets. Last year I lined them with plastic and punched holes but the baskets did not look very pretty and they did not drain very well. This year I am putting a small water reservoir in the bottom. I am using a plant drip tray filled with rocks. Each year I try to find ways to conserve water.
I put a strip of cotton cloth over the rocks to act like a wick.
I then filled it with soil and planted. I am growing cilantro in this basket. I purchased one cilantro from the garden center and I lightly scattered cilantro seeds around the top of the soil and gently pressed down. I normally use organic garden sticks in my hanging baskets and as I water it will gradually release food.
Starting my 2014 garden blog. February 4, 2014
I have drawn out the design of a small raised bed garden in the front yard. This will be a square foot gardening plot. We have very limited sun in our yard due to large trees so we must garden in the areas that have the most sun.
This is where the raised beds will be. We have grown cucumbers and squash along this fence before so this year we will try a square foot garden.
These are a few vegetables and herbs that I plan to grow this year.