Spring Vegetable Gardening: "Gardener's Paradox"

Vegetable Garden from back of house

It is that time again.  It is time for the "gardener's paradox".  Here is the paradox: I love this time of year. It is beautiful weather, no mosquitoes, green, things are sprouting, blooming and smelling good. I get to plant! I design my vegetable garden and plan new vegetables.  I can almost taste the juicy red tomatoes when I am planting. I am cleaning out beds and they look so nice. I mulch the beds after weeding and it feels like a good haircut. I take all those cuttings of begonias and impatience and add bits of color everywhere.  Now for the paradox...it is exhausting!  It is time consuming and physically hard work. It is preparing beds, working and amending the soil, deadheading, weeding, mulching, fertilizing and planting...and planting some more, then watering everything in.

But for now, I will share the good side of the paradox: designing and planting the vegetable garden.

Garden from gate

 

The side beds are 4x6 raised beds. Bottom bed: potatoes, spinach, carrots.

Top bed: lettuce, Kale

closer picture of carrots(left), spinach/lettuce (middle)and potatoes(right)

The left front bed is Asparagus 

The bed farthest left is green peppers and onions

closer look at green peppers and onions

My middle bed is two different beans with cucumbers on the end

In the middle of the fence I planted tall plants for pollination like hollyhocks, cilantro and zinnia

the beans growing up the fence

The back bed is tomatoes, fennel, sweet potatoes.  This year I am "trying" out this
red plastic mulch which is supposed to increase yield and size of tomatoes.

roma tomatoes

fennel

 The last bed is squash, pumpkins, zucchini and some marigolds for companion planting

Outside the fenced vegetable garden I have these delicious thornless Navajo and Quachita blackberry

blackberry forming

I have two peach trees La Peche and Florida King

For the more serious gardeners, I drew out my vegetable garden plan layout below. This garden has a picket fence around it with chicken wire stapled and dug down about 6 inches to keep armadillos out. (which by the way does NOT work when your kids leave the gate open!). I planted perennials and climbing roses around the outside. The beds are raised old pressurized wood ( 2x8). The smaller beds on the sides are 4ft x 6ft and the long ones in the middle and end are 4-6 ft x 18-20ft. I installed a drip and small sprinkler system for each bed and landscape fabric and pine straw are in the walkways.

 

If you have any questions about any of the design, types of plants, etc just leave a comment below or feel free to email.  I will be happy to share information or answer any questions.

 

Happy Gardening!

Nicki