The Garden Year Begins!

 

 The Waukesha Community Garden - first week of April 2013.

 

 First hops shoots of the season: all four plants are up as of the first week of April.

 

My community garden plot: 20'x35'~ish.

#Garden Map: Take 1

I worked on this throughout the winter, and here it is: the draft of the garden map. The whole left side of the screen is our community garden space (20'x40') and the small beds in the middle right are the beds at the house. The squares with circles in them are all things being planted in pots. I already know there will be some changes, since we just planted the favas and lentils on Saturday and wanted to plant more than originally planned, bumping the golden amaranth. Maybe I can post a picture of my lego garden plan next...

Click for a closer view :)

When planning your garden map, consider Ivette Soler's book The Edible Front Yard. I've mentioned it before, but it is worth repeating!

#Garden Plan, with #Seeds to Spare

We have ordered and received our seeds, organized the seeds we saved from last year, and even traded some seeds with friends and family. And yet it is still safe to say that we still have more seeds than we need for the spring. I look forward to trading more at a seed exchange in the spring.

Here are the varieties we bought new this year:

From Bountiful Gardens

• Large Brown Lentils
• Linares Quinoa
• Black Turtle Dry Bush Beans
• Hopi Black Dye Sunflowers
• Pinto Dry Bush Beans
• Red Cowpeas
• Oilseed Sunflowers

From Baker Creek Seeds

• Purple Plum Radishes
• Saxa II Radishes
• Black Hungarian Peppers
• Chinese 5 Color Peppers
• Scarlet Runner Beans
• Chinese Red Noodle Beans (pictured, above right)
• Gaint Musselburgh Leeks
• Orange Banana Tomatoes
• Plum Lemon Tomatoes
• Tess's Land Race Currant Tomatoes
• Beauty King Tomatoes

Including the items above, we will be planting 59 different kinds of plants (110 different varieties) between the home garden, the community garden, and a variety of pots and tubs in the yard. I am so looking forward to spring!

Community #Gardens Rock!

I've started on a plot at a community garden this fall, so the plot will be ready next spring. Luckily, there were some vacancies this year so I could start int he fall--normally you buy the plot in February and you are stuck with what you get. Since the plot I took was empty, we get free time to plan things out.

Pics are below of our progress so far: keyhole beds, tearing out the Jerusalem artichokes that had taken over, and spreading out leaves and local sheep manure to rot over the winter.

And what's news without a good resource? The American Community Garden Association has lots of info, including how to find gardens close to you.




I've been meaning to pick up Growing a City Garden by Jeremy N. Smith & others. Has anyone read it? I must petition the local library!

the last of the season's tomatoes

FYI, the book in the corner is the Organic Farming Manual by Anne Larking Hansen.