With patience that is unheard of for me, I wait until the real tomato planting weather begins. Traditionally that has been May 1st, but with warmer temps and especially in raised beds, the tomato experts have pushed it up a few weeks. But I'm still pretty faithful to the May 1st rule, especially when this April was too busy to even think of our pathetic little place we've named The Garden. When it got cold again last week and dumped rain hard just six days ago, I was happy I had waited until now.
Feeling like a rebel, I put my garden in today, April 30th. It was blazing hot but I slathered on the sunscreen and plopped on my trusty floppy hat. I put a few more layers on our lasagna garden and put my plants in without much of a plan. This is the first garden in the new house and we have so much more work in the yard, so I'm keeping my expectations low. Instead of trying a bunch of heirlooms and veggies that never grow for me, I'm sticking with the basics - the holy trinity of tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers. The varieties I bought are many of the same ones my Dad planted when I was young, so that makes them heirlooms. No purple tinted, stripped or pear shaped fruits here, just your run-of-the-mill tomatoes that are red, round and tasty.
I put The Garden in view of the kitchen window, close to the house without being annoying, near enough to a water supply, and the best part, where it gets sunshine almost all day. No more cursing the shade of a fence or tree, this area is screaming Grow Vegetables Right Here! So here we go, one day early and blazing hot, let's get growing little guys, salads are a'waiting!
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| I don't Pin It, I Staple It. Summer Garden Plan 2014 |
Tomatoes
- Better Boy
- Champion
- Ace
- Sweet 100
- Big Beef
Squash
- Yellow Crookneck
- 2 Green Zucchini
- Mystery Squash seeds saved from our last garden
Cucumber
- 2 Persian
- Armenian
Nice and simple, that's it. I threw together our funky planter box set-up from the old deck pilings that are having babies in our yard. There are way more, but I stopped hauling and lifting them when my back started to rebel. Next year, I'll add on to it until we use up all the deck pilings. But I promise I'll not go crazy with the green zucchini. Friends don't doorbell ditch baseball bat sized zucchini. No promises with the mystery squash, however.
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| Not exactly anyone's dream garden. But the weeds will cover it all up soon enough. |
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| Because the world needs more zucchini. |
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| Possibly from a boy named Jack. |
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| Another task crossed off the list! |
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| Our ball obsessed dog makes relaxing by the pool a self cancelling phrase. She can't take the suspense, so she hides behind the chair. |
