Thursday, June 4, 2009

Green project



Here's the latest yard project. Anne's been dreaming and researching about growing vegetables for a few weeks now. She wanted to implement a four-year plan to feed us with lots of the veggies we like out of her projected 100 square feet of beds. Sort of a variation on the Square Foot gardening idea which recently surfaced.

It all came together last Sunday when we found a supplier for the boxes. Thanks to Maria's sharp eyes, we've got beautiful cedar-planked boxes in two sizes. Because we have to order a few yards of soil for the big boxes we started with the 4x4 foot one first. It's going on a part of the front yard where the grass grows very sparsely.



As the digging began, some worms came to the surface. Anne was helping these worms to find a cool and covered corner when she had company drop in. This was a scrumptious buffet for one of our resident robins.



Here's the first bed all planted out. Again, thanks to Maria, we have four zucchini, two cucumber plants. We've planted bright nasturtiums all around the edges - remember my craving for nasturtiums? According to our companion planting guide, nasturtiums work well with squash. And they'll be beautiful in salads. And, apparently, they also help control aphids. We'll see about that!



Now we just sit back, water and wait for the harvest. Since we've lost most of the growing season for this year, we'll take our time preparing the other boxes. We also have to collect more organic material.

I can taste those grilled zucchini already!

3 comments:

  1. You are going to have such a pretty garden as well as practical. I grow mainly lettuces and red onions in a raised space even smaller than that, with a cherry tomato in the middle that produced an amazing amount of deliciously sweet little tomatoes. Kept us in salads all summer. Its so much fun growing your own tasty vegetables

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  2. I was just looking over these boxes here at your blog yesterday - and wondering if I could do this, too. We have such poor soil on our side of the mountain, something like this just might work!

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  3. Good luck with your gardening - I love watching mine grow!

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