Saturday, May 24, 2014

Finally...A Real Garden!

After much waiting and patience (okay, maybe just waiting), I can finally say that I have a real garden!

Some may say that the patch of bare earth that I uncovered a few months ago was technically a garden (especially since it had been used as a garden for several years previously), but it didn't *feel* like a real garden until it was tilled...which happened Thursday (and again today)!!!!

This is what I started with back in March.

I live in rainy upstate New York, with a highly-clay soil.  I decided early on that I was going to plant my veggies in raised rows, in an effort to keep them from drowning (especially the tomatoes).  My plan was to set up 3' wide raised rows, with 18" walkways in between.

We grow rocks really well in the clay soil, too!

For some reason it didn't hit me until I was raking the soil to make the raised rows that even though the "footprint" of the row would be 3' wide, the plantable surface at the top of the raised row wouldn't actually be that wide.  I was a bit disappointed at first, but I've mostly gotten over it.

My fully prepped garden!

Luckily it doesn't really matter for most of the rows (potatoes, tomatoes, squash), since single plants will still be planted down the middle of the row.  The problem arises mainly for the cucumber row...  I had planned to put cucumbers down one side, and root veggies (onion, carrot, radish, beet) down the other, but I don't think I'm going to have room now!  I might just spread the root veggies around the rest of the plants too, and maybe even plant them on the slope going down the edge of the rows.

While Thursday and today involved most of the work to make the garden, tomorrow it will really feel real...I'll be planting the first of my veggies!  I'm going to put in my broccoli plants, onion starts, and lettuce, beet, carrot, and radish seeds.  I cut up my seed potatoes tonight, so they will be ready to plant in 2-3 days (maybe more considering the current weather forecast).  I can't wait!

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