One of my random goals for the year was to plan and execute an awesome veggie garden in our backyard. The goal was to do a bunch of research, learn a bunch about different plants and figure out which ones go well together to get a really good plan in place to make the most out of my two raised beds in the backyard. I’d plant as soon as the frost was done and get multiple plantings and have fresh produce all summer long…
Things don’t always go as planned… and without a plan… things just don’t happen… Maybe I had too many goals for the first portion of this year, but in any case, I didn’t get any research done, and I definitely didn’t make a plan. However, I did plant some seeds in one of my raised beds a couple weekends ago (the weekend where I tried and failed at getting a bunch of stuff done… so I guess it wasn’t a complete failure…) and to my surprise when I got home from my work trip the other day, there are little green sprouting plants in my garden! I am so excited! Now I just have to learn how to keep the garden tended and thin the plants to allow for the best growth. Oh, and make sure to water them!
Here’s a rough plan of how my garden is planted. Although I only have one row of each plant, not the strange grid that the online garden plan tool that I found made for me.
So, as you can see, I will hopefully have pumpkins, lettuce, carrots, radishes, beans and zucchini. I have no doubt that the zucchini plants will do just fine, I just hope that I can harvest them before the slugs eat them (last year we had a few, but lost a lot to slugs…). I’m not sure what the pests will be for the rest of them, but I know last year the deer liked to eat some of the plants, and there was a rabbit that would come by and nibble things too. I haven’t come up with a solution for it yet, but might have to get some deer fencing or something for around the garden.
In my other garden, the only thing I have right now are my strawberry plants from last year. They are looking pretty happy. We only got a couple berries from each of these plants last year because the raccoons would always come and eat them. The disappointment of seeing a few berries almost ripe and then coming back the next day to zero berries on the bush… so not cool. I will have to get a few more plants for that raised bed. Then I plan to take the ramshackle plastic greenhouse structure that is around it and fortifying it to stop the racoons from getting it. I will eat my own strawberries, thank you very much.
Do you have a veggie garden? What do you plant? And how do you keep the pests away from your plants?
All-Round Better Me 
I also wanted to plant a veggie garden this year but first needed to build raised planter beds. It has taken me longer than expected to make the planters so I don’t know if I’ll even get around to planting this year. I don’t have a ton of space and zero experience so someone told me about this site http://www.squarefootgardening.com which might be helpful for your research even if you don’t have space limitations like I do.
One thing I learned from here is that planting basil near your tomatoes helps the tomato flavor (and plus, who doesn’t like basil with tomatoes!?)
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I was really lucky that there were a few raised beds already in the backyard when we moved in. Depending on how things go with my garden this year, I may try and build some more raised beds next year. There is still time though to plant for this year. Just get something with a shorter growing time, or buy a plant that has already been started.
I had read somewhere about the square food garden concept (probably through Pinterest) and think it is pretty great, but I have planted my garden in the traditional rows that my grandparents always had for their garden this time. They were epic gardeners! My Nana still gardens, but it isn’t quite as huge now that my granddad has passed away. My dad still uses the traditional rows too… Thanks for the link, I will have to do some more reading in to the square foot garden.
I was considering buying some tomato plants for the bed that I haven’t planted yet… Maybe I’ll get some basil too!
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I don’t have a garden here at our new house, but in the past we bought a house that already had 22 raised beds! In the process of the previous owners moving out and U.S. Moving in, they were a bit neglected, and the weeds took over. So there I was, thrown into the new world of gardening, totally overwhelmed! That first year it was a mess! Lol I hope yours goes better.
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Yeah, we had some pretty neglected gardens last year, but we’ve been in the house for over a year now and we are definitely making headway. It is lucky for me that my fiance is pretty good at yard work and generally enjoys doing it too. Bonus for me, as he’s been able to teach me quite a bit. There is still a problem area in the back of the yard that we haven’t gotten to yet… I’m hoping that this summer we’ll be able to tackle that.
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