Monday, March 29, 2010

Gardening 2010

I've been on a hiatus from blogging lately. Actually, I wrote this blog several months ago and never got around to posting it. With work, moving, and my presidential duties at the Hoosier Chapter SWCS it's been busy around here. Now with spring starting up (actually summer now), it's time to have that garden Steph and I have always wanted. We have a master plan, thanks to Steph's uncanny ability to use Microsoft Excel as a layout map. Each cell is equal to one square foot, so that the layout is to known scale. We're really ambitious for our first year with the plan to plant 16 different types of vegetables. If you're interested in checking it out, go to our Google Spreadsheet by clicking here. With our master plan we visited Cox's Plant Farm outside of Clayton to purchase all the seeds. The only seed they didn't have was Sweet Potatoes. We had planned to grow both Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes, but we'll just try regular Potatoes this year.

So with the master plan and all the vegetable seeds, it was time to prepare the ground. Being an advocate of no-till farming, it was hard 'tilling' up the garden. The best part about the location of our garden is it is located about 50 feet from the creek with a grass buffer in-between. You will notice in the picture below, the garden is located in at the back corner of our back yard. We purchase prefabricated fence panels and posts at Menard's (half-priced). It was required to have the garden fenced, since my dogs would love running around in all that loose soil.

Garden Layout


Compost Bin
(full of yummy veggie goodness)


First Plantings - Lettuce and Spinach


Lettuce and Spinach Coming Up


Seedling Plantings Setup


Growing Seedlings


Of course the summer is among us now and the garden is past full bloom. In the coming weeks I will continue the saga of the Wagner garden.