Spring has Sprung

Week 1, Day 1: March 20

After failing at my first attempt of a fall garden this past year, the garden received a much needed vacation.  We did however continue to get plenty of kale, cilantro, and scallions throughout the winter, even with several days below freezing and some mornings of frost.

Spring Break is usually my first opportunity to get things started and this year I have decide to expand my little backyard urban farm.  In addition to my existing 4 four by four raised beds, I have added some 8x8ft tilled ground areas.

 The back bed is ready... tilled soil with compost and to loosen up this central Texas rocky soil.  The front bed still needs to be tackled, but am going to wait until I have an idea of what I want to plant in it.   Another reason I had the urge to expand was that my backyard neighbor also expanded his garden. 

Over the break, I also reconstructed my leaf compost bin with some pallets to make 2 storage areas.  They don't look to shabby either.

So what did I plant this year...
Well I visited several of the local nurseries to see what was out and prices of each.  I ended up purchasing several from pretty much all of the nurseries, mainly to do a comparison between them to see which one will yield the best crops.

Seedlings:
Peppers: 6 Camelot green peppers, 6 Aladdin sweet peppers, 
Tomatoes: 6 Brandywine,  6 Phoenix, 6 Red Cherry Large, 6 Super Fantastic,
Onions: bunch of white and red
Vines: 2 zucchini, 2 cucumbers

Roots:
2 rhubarbs
@10 potatoes

Seeds:
Lettuce: Romaine, Bibb, Black Seeded Simpson
Melon: Honeydew
Pepper: Red Bell
Peas: Sugar, Green, Snap, Green Beans
and an some unknown seed.

This will be my first time to plant peas and beans.  Currently I have some round tomato cages for the vines to grow up on, but will eventually create some tripods with some cane poles.

I have plans to build a folding panel for the cucumbers and zucchini to grow on, lifting them off the ground that I found in Sean Conway's Cultivating Life book.  Not only will this help keep the fruit off the ground, but will also create a somewhat shady area beneath it to grow my lettuces.

As a precaution to Texas impending summer heatwave and drought, I wanted to come up with a better method for watering my garden.  In true luck fashion, as I was walking around my local Home Depot, I spotted several raised bed water irrigation systems on clearance for $14 a piece.  Each system will cover a 4x8 bed, so I picked up 4 of them just in case.  

I still have a little more room to plant some things so I will probably head back out this weekend to pick up a few more seedlings.  If anyone has any good ideas or suggestions, let me know.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!