While the air is a brisk 50 degrees outside, the sunshine adds remarkable warmth to my yummy dark soil. Below is a summary of what I was up to in my yard on Saturday.
Before you begin gardening, make sure the location of your garden will have at least eight hours of (summer) sunlight. Garden vegetable require a lot of sun! My garden consists of four 4’x8’ raised beds. For a family of five, this is actually a bit small, but I make-do with what I have. I have learned to overplant my beds and train plants to grow vertically to save space. My problems with vertical gardening in a small backyard are my surrounding neighbor's trees and my monster two-story house that shades my garden in the afternoon. Be sure if you decide to use vertical garden techniques to save space that you place your tallest plants and structures to the north end of your garden so these do not shade your garden.
So, in the beautiful sunshine, my husband and I emptied the lower-half of my compost into my four garden bins. I also scooped up some bunny droppings and turned it into my soil. The raised bed closest to my house is loaded with strawberry plants. The other three bins are where I will grow my summer crops.
With the soil turned and looking absolutely lovely, I decided it was time to plant a few seeds. While my frost-sensitive plants continue to thrive in a sunny window in my bathtub, I planted my peas & spinach directly in the ground. The peas are sugar-snap peas (Burpee’s Snowbird Sugar-Snap Peas). These grow well in the cool of spring, but stop growing once the summer months come. I attached a net above my seeds to encourage them to grow vertically. I planted my peas in pairs along half the length of my most northern bin, just below my vertical netting. With the limited space, I plan on 4 feet being used for peas, while I reserve the other 4 feet for my beans once the weather warms a little more. At the front of my small strip of peas I planted a row of spinach (Burpee’s Baby Leaf Hybrid Spinach). This spinach is fast growing and tastes delicious picked young. My girls love to go outside with a small pair of scissors and snip spinach leaves for our dinner salad.
Already growing indoors, I have my tomatoes, peppers & eggplant. I typically start indoors the plants that are sensitive to frost. This gives my garden a jump-start on its yield. Once Clovis is past the danger of frost (typically mid/end of March), then I will bring my cold-sensitive plants outdoors. In the meantime, I have them growing in a sunny window in my bathtub.
I hoped you enjoyed your yard a little this weekend while the weather was cool, but the sun was warm! It's not too early to begin preparing for spring!
