My Garden

So this year I actually did it. I built and planted my garden! Now I only have all summer to keep it from drying out and dieing like my tomato plants did last year. I built a box out of 2x10 boards, filled it with dirt, laid out my grid, and planted my square foot garden. My box is 5x5 instead of the recommended 4x4 to allow room for a border of marigolds. Marigolds are pretty, and I've been told they keep the bunnies out of your garden. Now that we're past the reasonable expectation of frost (although Columbus's official frost free date isn't until May 15 or something ridiculous like that), I'll be getting the flowers in soon. Maybe next weekend. Or tomorrow. We'll see. Currently my garden contains: peas, carrots, spinach, kale, and lettuce. I have two empty squares for tomatoes, and I'll probably put two more tomato plants into the same pots I had last year, and hope for a better outcome. I also have four more empty squares. I'll probably get some herbs to put there from the farmers market when it opens in May. I may also save a square for one of my neighbors to put in some beets. It is a community back yard, so the least I can do is share some garden space with my neighbors who have all agreed not to complain to property management about my garden box.

My peas are looking great!



My carrots are hard to see, because I just thinned them so they have all the space they need to grow big and fat and sweet. These will be dragon carrots. I thought the purple looked really cool. I may try another variety when these are harvested.

And here is my spinach. It's also doing very well, and I just thinned it down to 9 plants in a square.

I'm worried about my Kale. So far, I don't see anything in my two kale squares that looks like I planted it there. I may have to try again. My lettuce is looking good, but there are only 4 per square, and they're pretty small, so I didn't bother to take a picture. I'll get more pictures as the plants get bigger, and hopefully share how much harvest I get from my little square foot garden. And of course my two biggest helpers: