Summer Garden 2013

In case you weren’t around last year at this time, I planted my first summer garden. 

People that know me well know that I do NOT have a green thumb.  One year, Emma gave me a begonia for Mother’s Day and said Mom, do not kill this one!

Against all odds, the garden last year was wildly successful. It was one of my favorite adventures yet.  If you want to catch up on some of the posts, check out the posts in the Gardening Category.

As a quick update from the last post there, my carrot seeds did grow through the winter and I just picked the last 6 or 8 carrots last week.  So awesome being able to pick a carrot and use it a soup.

So, this weekend we planted this year’s summer garden.

It was a quick affair this time. The raised beds were done, the soil was in.  I just weeded it a bit and turned the soil, adding a bit of peat moss.  I have no idea if that’s what I was supposed to do or not—please don’t consider me an expert quite yet.

We went last Saturday morning and got $30 of starter plants—I only include the price so you can see how affordable it is compared to the amount of produce you receive once you have the initial beds ready.

We laid the plants out in their containers.

 

And then Emma and I planted them while Lexi opted to play photographer.

Bella helped where she could—mainly providing the cute factor.

And here is the official “before” picture for the year:

 

It’s hard to tell what’s what, so here is the layout:

Overall, I have less plants than last year.  The garden was a jungle.  I really would like to add a 3rd box next year.

What I added more: jalapeño peppers

What I cut back on: tomato and zucchini (holy tomatoes and zucchini, Batman!)

New things I’m trying:  Grape tomatoes and cucumber

Things I didn’t bring back: Broccoli and lettuce, which I didn’t think had a great return on money for us.

My one concern for this year is that since last summer we replaced our fence with the 6’ privacy fence.  Tucker kept jumping the 4’ picket fence.  Tucker!

The back line which has all the tomato plants don’t get nearly as much sun so it will be interesting to see if they are as productive as last year.

I just can’t explain how awesome it was to see everything grow. 

If you need some extra inspiration, be sure to check out this post where I talk about the film East of Eden. I might have to give it another viewing myself.

Overall, I’m super duper excited to see how it turns out again and highly suggest anyone to give it a try. 

Do you garden?  Have you planted yet?