Early Garden

With the warmer weather comes the beginning of the gardening season. This is the third year we've planted a vegetable garden, but the first year to plant some cool weather crops. The past couple of years have been pretty good with harvests including tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, beans, sunflower seeds, cucumbers, and basil.

I'm a huge fan of Jon Jeavons' How to Grow More Vegetables (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine. Lengthy title...yes. Jam packed with insightful information...for sure. While the book is pretty extensive, I practice what I can and try to add a little bit more each year. This year is the first that we used our own compost from the previous year's waste. I was a little nervous it was still going to look like a pile of vegetable and fruit waste, but when I popped the top it was perfect. The compost bin was a little investment, but hopefully we'll be using it for years to come.

Here is the garden bed from last year in need of some sprucing up.

Rather than tilling the soil, which destroys much of the microorganisms that benefit plants, I used a modified version of Jeavons' double dig method. You basically start by digging a trench and removing the first row of soil for composting purposes. Another layer underneath that trench is then loosened. After that, the next trench is dug out and placed in the previous trench and so on and so forth until the whole bed has been dug.

After the trench digging, a thin layer of compost is spread over the top and then raked until even. Here is Little Girl helping with the raking. She was really getting into the whole process and was even talking about how the extra air in the dirt would help the plants grow. Pretty funny to hear her say that.

We lightly watered it all when we were done to keep everything evenly moist and to give the microbial life a drink. This was definitely Little Girl's favorite part of the whole day.

The following day was planting time. We planted two types of carrots, two types of head lettuce, spinach, radishes, two types of potatoes, and some broccoli. Little Girl was pretty pumped about this part as well, although after about 30 seeds she decided it was time to go hit the swing set.

I was able to draw her back in when it was time for the potatoes. She enjoyed digging the holes and dropping them in.

Overall, it was a great day! It's fun hanging with the kid and doing something I enjoy while teaching her a little at the same time. Little Girl loves the outdoors, so I think I've got a gardening buddy for at least a few years.

Of course, the risk in posting about our garden is the fact that it might be a complete fail. I'm really hoping that most of our effort pays off, and we'll have something to show for it. I'll keep you updated on our success.