Once we hit May it is the warning that it is time to get busy getting ready for summer. For us in the event industry summer becomes very busy with outdoor concerts and festival season. Which in turn means there is not the time for big projects and our home and yard better be ready to be in maintenance mode. I was fortunate this year to have more time in the early days of spring to start on some of my projects. Since last year we got a little more serious with our garden and made garden boxes with a weed barrier and gravel walkways my garden clean up and prep was much easier. I was able to weed the space in less than 15 minutes. Since I had a space basically ready to expand, I went for it. Usually, I am rushing to get garden prepped and planted all in one day, in fact, a handful of years ago, I didn’t even have a real garden. I was out buying flowers on Memorial Day and decided I wanted a few some homegrown goods. Without planning or prep, I bought a handful of fruits and veggie plants then spent the next day pulling weeds and raking rocks and gravel all while asking myself “What was I thinking”. I did get to enjoy garden grown veggies that year but boy was it a lot of work since I didn’t have any real prep done the weeds were out of control in short order. So, over the years we have slowly taken my experiment and created something much more real which could now be considered a proper garden. I love that I can easily move through my space, find my homegrown treasures and I am not spending my free time pulling pesky weeds.
So, being that I now have a proper garden space I decided to take more time planning what I wanted to grow as well as how to lay everything out. Since my cucumbers started to get yellowing on the leaves near the end of the season last year I wanted to move them to a different location in hopes to prevent reinfecting my new plant. In addition, I became concerned about the soil having enough nutrients for the plants if they did not get rotated around. Typically, I buy plants that are already started and just put them in the ground however this year I decided to experiment with sowing a few actual seeds. so I planted some carrots, radishes, and peas. Since peas and carrots go so well together I am trying some companion gardening and have those little guys sharing a space. I have also placed the rows in a way that I can add more seeds in a few weeks to extend the growing season and keep these guys growing later into the season. I’m pretty excited about the carrots and radishes as they take me back to my childhood and working in the garden with my parents. I love when the little things bring fond memories of my time spent with them. No matter how small the task it always makes me smile and helps to heal my heart. One of the big goals in planning my garden is that I like to keep my plants to producing what my family or close friends can easily consume or crops that are easy to preserve.
I have always loved to have fresh cucumbers as they are always better out of the garden, I opted for the burpless bush cucumber plant in hopes to keep a little tidier space. I always do at least two plants because it is a bummer if for some reason one doesn’t make it. My family loves my homemade salsa so I planted the necessary goods to keep that coming through the season. A bit of cilantro, tomatoes, onions (red and sweet) and a variety of mild and hot peppers. A new addition this year is tomatillos so I can try my hand at some Verde salsa. We enjoy how the garden
Now as I wait for the first blossom, then the tiny fruit, it is time to read and learn. In the past, I learned a few tricks for treating the pests organically of which I will share in a later post. This year I will learn more about organic weed control. In the garden itself I now just pull weeds as they appear, however, I want the area around my garden to be organically treated to prevent any overspray of harmful chemicals. If I find success in organic weed control I will be sure to share the recipe for that as well. Once I have mastered keeping pesky weeds and pests at bay I will research more ways to preserve my crops. I’m currently just finishing up last year’s onions and peppers so when the first harvest arrives I will be ready. In fact, as I type this I am already dreaming of when we can enjoy our garden-fresh Greek salad. In the meantime, I guess it’s off to learn about natural weed and pest control and great and easy methods of preservation. Any tips?? Please feel free to contact me through email or leave a comment below.
