Patience

Some of the things I planted, like lettuce, should be big and fluffy by now, but while mine stand at two inches tall, other gardeners' are doing so well. One fellow gardener advised me, "Patience. Sometimes things will sit there and do nothing, and then all of a sudden, they'll take off." Case in point, Greg (another fellow gardener)'s peony poppies: he said they were hanging out forever at a really small size, but now they have exploded.

Before and After: Box #2

April 6, 2008

Top row: spinach (planted)

Top 2nd row (l-r): tuscan kale, tuscan kale, tuscan kale, gourmet rainbow beets

Top 3rd row (l-r): mesclun lettuce, red bibb lettuce, arugula, bok choy

Bottom row (l-r): tuscan kale (1st 3), then broccoli rabe

June 13, 2008

Top row: spinach, spinach, armenian cucumber, midnight dream sweet bell pepper
Top 2nd row (l-r): tuscan kale, tuscan kale, tuscan kale, gourmet rainbow beets
Top 3rd row (l-r): mesclun lettuce, red bibb lettuce, arugula, listada de giada eggplant

Bottom row (l-r): tuscan kale (1st 3), then eggplant

Notes: The spinach didn't grow well at all. I think that it was shaded out much of the time by a bush on the other side of the fence. Finally, I yanked it, because it just went to seed when it was 2 inches tall. I also got rid of the bok choy, as it wasn't doing much, and I think I overplanted it (4 to a square). The kale is doing great, though, except for some pesky cabbage worms. The broccoli rabe didn't fare so well - perhaps I overplanted this too? I don't know. Anyway, I put some eggplant starts in the bok choy and rabe's place, but they're looking a little yellow right now, so we'll see how they fare.

Before and After: Box #1

Ready to plant!

A April 6, 2008

Top row: sugar snap peas (planted)

Middle Row (l-r): opal basil, dill, genovese basil, chives, opal basil

Bottom Row (l-r): lemon verbena, lemon thyme, sage, french tarragon, empty

June 13, 2008

Top row: sugar snap peas

Middle Row (l-r): pal basil, dill, genovese basil, chives, opal basil

Bottom Row (l-r): lemon verbena, lemon thyme, cilantro, french tarragon, sweet cream marigold

After shot: Overall

Well, you can't see everything, but the plot is pretty much cleaned up here. I have one 3x5' box to the far left, then two 4x4' boxes next to that. I didn't have space for 3' rows in between like Mel suggests in the book, but I think it will be okay. The middle box's soil is much darker because I sprinkled some compost on top of it.

Before Shots - Overall

So here is my garden when it's overgrown with weeds. Yikes!

The Boxes

Here are a few quick notes on my progress so far:April 6, 2008 - I finally got the beds built and the soil mixed. After returning from a week's vacation in Los Angeles, my husband watched my son while I trekked down to Home Depot to buy wood and screws. I had never been to the wood section to actually buy something before. I got one of those big, orange carts that almost seems to be designed to veer diagonally rather than straight, and picked out some 2x6 inch 8-foot boards. I found out that you can get them cut there for 50 cents a cut (and the first two are free), but it took me about 50 minutes of waiting and calling people who wouldn't show up to finally get the boards cut. I got the wrong screws, but my husband was able to get the right ones later. We assembled the boards in our master bedroom. Yep, no garage, but that didn't stop us. Then my husband loaded them up in the van, and I took them down to the garden myself. They were kind of heavy, but no heavier than the 46 pounds of pregnancy weight I was hauling around with my first son. What was surprising and unexpected was just how heavy 8 cu. ft of Mel's mix can be. In the book you see the person standing there with a nice looking tarp and a neat pile of soil on top. "Just fold the corners of the tarp together," the book says, "and mix up your soil." I suppose I should have paid attention to the note that you might want someone to help you. I ended up enlisting the help of my foot and kicked my soil around until it was well mixed and I had a few cupfulls up my socks. I also didn't realize how long this process would take, and because I only had an hour or two at a time, it took several visits to get all three of my boxes filled. I topped them off with some recycled venetian blind strips I picked up at the dumpsters outside our apartment complex, and voila! Brand-new boxes. Would planting and gardening be this hard as well?