Gardening Update

Well, it took nearly 2 weeks of working on my new garden patch whenever time and weather allowed it, but I am finally nearly done with its preparation. I removed all the weeds that were growing there and successfully relocated a "weigela sunny fantasy" and a dark pink peony plant. My lovely husband removed grass to make the patch rectangular as opposed to a half-moon shape and we picked up two trailer-loads of rich soil. All that is left to do is even out the soil and sow/plant! :)

The garden patch. Cleared and almost ready to use.

Meanwhile, the few plants I sowed at the very end of march are doing quite well.... almost too well! The cucumber plants started growing their fruit. The plants were growing so fast, I had to transplant them (for the second time) into bigger containers, as the weather is not yet good enough for cucumber plants to safely be outside 24/7. I am quite happy to see small cucumbers, but I think I will sow them a little later next year.

How cute... tiny cucumbers!

The tomato, decorative squash, chili and gooseberry plants are also doing quite well... and since the end of march, I also sowed different kinds of herbs. Most of the plants have been in my mini greenhouse for a good while now. I open the flap during the day, and close it at night. But today, the weather was so nice, I took them all out for a few hours.

My  baby plants got some fresh air today

The squash are producing flowers, and today, I took the 2 best looking ones and transplanted them into a huge clay pot. I am hoping they will do fine with being outside (out of the mini greenhouse) day and night. I did cover with plastic for tonight, and will probably do so for a few nights, to help their transition.

I also transplanted the biggest of my chili plants into its permanent pot.

As for the garden itself, I am still debating what I can and can not sow at this time of the year in my part of the world. Because making a garden was kind of  a last minute decision, I did not sow many garden things in advance, so I have to rely on sowing directly in soil. I think I am too late for some stuff, but can still make it for some other things. Hopefully I will have all of this sorted out within the weekend and week ahead, otherwise, I will completely miss my chance of a garden for this year!

So much to learn.... but it is so much fun! :)

Preparing a Vegetable Garden

The month of May has arrived and given us some very lovely sunny days to do some more projects out in the yard. With my baby plants growing fairly well and the temperature getting better and better, I have been trying to plan where I would plant what.

Decorative squash, tomato

Basil and mini cucumbers. The cucumber plants suffered from the temperature fluctuations, so I took them back inside until the outside temperature gets more even.

Chili

Originally, I wanted to use the small beds around the new terrace for growing peas and cucumbers and what not. But I quickly realized that my ideas were too big for the size of these two small patches and a few flower pots. I also noticed that with leaves growing in the nearby trees, my "garden spot" is way too much in the shade!

However, THIS spot is perfectly located!

The future vegetable garden

It has sun all day, is on the side of the yard we use the least (so is out of the way) and is close to the compost corner, as well as being easily reachable with the water hose.

The only issue is that we have never touched this flower bed since we moved into the house, and as you can see, it is completely overtaken by weeds. A huge cleanup is in order! So my husband and I worked on this project yesterday and today. It is not done yet, but I should be able to finish the clean up during the week so that we can do the last details next weekend. This will be just in time to sow, as most of what I want to grow apparently needs to be sowed mid to late May if it is done directly outside in the garden.

Clearing weeds out

I'm still unsure of what we'll do with the small tree. It can't stay there, obviously, so I am hoping we can move it to a new location.

I am so excited about this project! I have never had a vegetable garden before. I am eager to see if anything good will come out of it! I sure hope so. My grandparents used to have a garden and I have such lovely memories of going there in the summer and eating freshly picked carrots or tomatoes. Mmmmm!  I wouldn't mind using my own home grown vegetables in my salads this summer.  

I'll be posting updates (hopefully very soon) about the new garden patch. :)