"Before and After" Amanda's Garden Plot

Oooh, makes me feel all Design Sponge .

I didn't get a garden plot so I had to make my own in my backyard. FYI it is totally against the rules but I figured that since the grass was dead anyway it isn't going to be a big deal. It took me a week of digging and raking a few hours every day but I did it and I present you with the results.

I know it looks like 80 square feet of dirt with a yarn and stake fence but it will be my 80 square foot organic garden. Already planted in that heap o dirt is two types of onion, shallots, and carrots. By the end of next week it will contain beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, leeks, potatoes and fennel.

Don't get all impressed or anything; I didn't grow any of it from seed(except the carrots) and everything should be assumed to be on death row until it lives through midsummer. I tried to impress you all growing from seed by staring some thyme, basil (seeds saved from my Ottawa basil) and mesculun in March but things did not go as planned.

As of today all that remains is one pathetic basil seedling and some really tiny thyme. The mesculun took a dive off the front stairs and I don't have any excuses for the rest. Everything sprouted brilliantly but either stagnated or died.

Help me seasoned gardeners! How do you grow from seed? When do I need to start? Do I need special equipment?

At this late date I am still going to attempt to grow some herbs from seed and I bought some mesculun seeds again but just in case I bought $40 worth of potted herbs so I can turn the front garden bed into a herb garden.


More...

Green Thumb!

Sinceone of the things I like about Edmonton is my having a yard and a garden plot, I need to grow a garden. In the past I have grown container gardens fullof herbs and flowers. I tried to grow vegtables in a container garden but it was a horrible disatser.

I am planning a vegetable garden for this summer and I am hoping that I don't end up being the "Grim Reaper" of the garden. I have already started a few herbs and I can see the first little sprouts of "creeping thyme" and a whole bunch of marigolds pushing through. So far so good.

I think I have two main failings when it comes to gardening; 1) I think it should be intuitive and 2) I get too excited and plant before the frost. Oh, and I am the most disorganized "type A"person you will ever meet. I am really hoping that I can over comemy disorganization and my lack of ability to actually learn about gardening. Perhaps there is a gardening support group attached to my garden plot rental. I really want to learn how to do the organic gardening thing right.

I have sprouts it is true but I am one week into my new garden and I am encountering a problem. I need to keep my sprouting plants in the house until June. That isn't the hard part though ,the hard part is keepingmy cats from using my sprouts as a toilet. I have only enough room for 2 more flats of seeds before I run out of places to put things. Since I am being very ambitious with my herbs (I want my back yard to smell like an herb garden) I am going to have to find a solution.

Getting the sidekick interested in the garden willbe another challenge.We don't have a fence and he seemsmore interested in the neighbour's swing set than playing in the dirt with mommy. I have no problemwith him playing in the neighbour's yard but I ama little worried that they might. We share a drive way and a walk way and even though I have attempted conversation they have never really talkedto us and they seem uneasy about G being in their yard.

The suburbs they are a strange thing. We have lived here for 8 months and despite announcing ourselvesto iur direct next door neighbours we still have no idea who we live among.