Spring is Nearly in the Air!

This week it has really warmed up here in the Treasure Valley of Idaho.  My girls are itching to get down and dirty in the garden so we prepared the raised bed in the back yard and got started!  They have been busy looking over the transplants and seeds available at the local stores and picked a few things out.  For the instant gratification part they choose- peas, bare root strawberries, and cabbage starts.  They decided that the best part of gardening was pulling up the root veggies so they also picked out- carrots, watermelon radishes, and beets. They also felt it was important to encourage the insects and birds to visit the garden and choose nasturtiums, cosmos, zinnias and forge- me-nots.  They say that the sunflowers and morning glories probably seeded themselves so they will wait and see what happens with them this year!

They picked out lots more things than will fit in their tiny plot but we also have the community garden to expand in so I let them choose seeds at will.  We decided to make our own seed tapes and because we are doing a quasi-square foot garden we made seed blocks.  I marked the paper towel with little pen dots and the girls dotted on glue and added the seeds.  I think they turned out great and we won't need to thin anything!

After turning the soil and adding the bag of compost I let the girls plant our transplants with some help.  G who's 2 planted the peas in a nice row along the back of the bed under the trellis and C planted the strawberry starts.  W, who isn't mine but who stays with us most days during the week planted the cabbages.  He's afraid of worms so this was very comical for the girls and me!  Didn't they do a fantastic job?  The black fencing is to keep the dog from trampling what we have planted- a fence will go back up in a couple of weeks.

We had our second community garden meeting last night and I was able to get a better read on what everyone wants to grow this year.  We had a great group of new members who have some fantastic ideas for the future. Ideas that were tossed around include a permaculture area for dwarf fruit trees and berries, an herb garden, painting the tool shed, and building a greenhouse.  This year we are using a black plastic mulch system with drip irrigation.  We expect to have much less trouble with weeds and watering schedules as a result!

I know we are all getting excited about the growing season over here! What are your plans?

The Girls Garden

I am developing a plan for what will be the square foot garden in the back yard.  My goal is for this one bed to be a year around garden.  This will take some planning on my part and a willingness to pull plants as they reach the end of their productive time.  This is something I am not normally good at because I just hate the see things end.  However, if I pull the peas at the beginning of July I can immediately plant green beans.  If I replace radishes with beets and lettuce with Swiss chard or kale I can keep the greens coming.  I am still struggling about giving space to a cherry tomato- one because they get so very large and two because we will certainly have plenty at the community garden.

I think the key to this garden is handing over ownership over to my daughters!  This will be a challenge for me- but I think it is only fair.  They  put in a lot of hours with me over at the community garden which is my pet project.  There they get very little say and often have to spend time they would rather spend playing in the water park moving sprinklers around with me.  With all of the wonderful color choices offered in everything from beans to zuchinni it promises to be an interesting garden.

My eldest daughter has successfully grown every seed ever given to her in preschool so I am sure the garden will have plenty of marigolds and zinnias.  She proudly tells everyone that because we planted sunflowers one year and we let the birds harvest the seeds that we no longer have to plant them.  She calls them our magic flowers!  She also loves johnny jump ups.  She insists on the traditional ones and has no interest in fancy colors.

I will encourage them to plant things that they like and that can be eaten straight out of the garden. I love to start the day snacking in the yard.  The girls love the hunt and the anticipation of the first harvest.  They watch each individual pea grow and discuss when it is ready to eat.  Even the dog gets into the action and she gladly eats any discarded pea pods.

I would like to include the introduction of beneficial insects this year.  The ladybugs show up with out fail but mantids and spiders are more sporadic.  A couple of years ago we had a beautiful Cat Face Spider which we watched with great curiosity   Last year we never saw any.  About three years ago there where preying mantises everywhere and we have not seen any the last two years- at least not in our yard.  We don't spray at all so I am not sure why this is.

Please keep reminding me this is their garden!  Maybe we will add a fairy garden in the middle!