This Year's Beginning

Back last year, I decided late that I wanted a garden. If I remember correctly, it was mid to late May. Which around here is REALLY LATE. By mid/late May, you could easily be harvesting some things (as I learned this year). Without having a way to till ground, I decided on a raised bed. I called my aunt for some advice and took her literally when she said "Get some top soil and pete moss." This first garden was a disaster. I never harvested anything and barely got blooms on the plants. I thought I had a picture of that, but I cannot seem to find it right now.

So now to this year....
This year I started on time. I believe it was mid-March. With greater assistance from my aunt, I ended up with the raised bed, two other small areas, and a few sporadic watermelon and cantaloupe. The watermelon and cantaloupe lasted long enough for the birds or some other critter (your welcome coop) to dig them up. So here we go.....

This is the earliest picture I can find of this years raised bed. This picture is about a week or two after planting. Back left is some 8-ball zucchini grown from seed starting early in the year by the aunt. Back center is two heirloom tomatoes. Unsure of the type at this point. And the foreground is three "Mucho Nacho" jalapeno plants also grown from seed. The right side is planted with two types of cucumbers that never really took off so I won't discuss them much.

Now here are the "prized possessions" in my opinion. When my aunt and I were at the local chain home improvement store gathering items for this years garden, I saw some sweet potato plants. Considering sweet potatoes are probably one of my favorite veggies, into the cart they went. Nine plants! I am probably going to be over run with them come fall, but oh well, I asked for it. I did mention earlier that I have no way of tilling. So your assumption is correct, that row was made by elbow grease. Notice the dirt though. We added some top soil and some manure but that is probably 80% natural. In a nutshell, I've got some good dirt. And yes.... this is in the middle of my backyard. Grass is overrated! More to follow with the sweet taters!

This is the herb garden, a few pots, and some Balmoral squash. The herb garden has (from foreground back) rosemary, oregano (along the edge on the right side), two (what I call) traditional basil, one (what I call) little leaf basil, and sage (right side in front of little basil). The pots (from R to L).... This first pot could be a post within itself. It is actually another heirloom tomato, but at the time, I was told it was an eggplant. So it will forever be know as the "Eggplantmater." Next is garlic which has since died due to heat and dryness. I won't discuss it much more. Other than, I will try again next year. Turning the corner, we have Chocolate Mint. Again this was a spur of them moment, it smelled good so I bought it. It has also died due to the same reasons stated. Next is green onion. A cool note about the onion... It is my understanding that this onion has been transplanted around through about four different people, but the original plant was my great-grandmother's! Pretty neat!

So that is the beginning of this year. I will put together another post of the current status later. I was going to try to work my way through this year, but I just don't see that happening at this point. The next post will be the current status and possibly what I have been able to pick up to this point.

More to come..... ENJOY!