Garden Friday

This Garden Friday finds us defining a new garden space.
We've been in our new house for 2 weeks now,
and there has been little time to focus on the outdoors.
This week, some effort was made to tidy things up a bit.

This is the east side of our home.

It's the perfect sunny spot for growing.

The square patch laid out here

was created by the previous owners,

who were not gardeners.

This is where they grew a few tomato plants

and that was the extent of their ventures into farming.

The location serves me well,

as it is semi-private,

so I can pretty much do whatever I choose,

and not have to consider the effect on any neighbors.

Just a few yards away is the area we are using for compost.

It is nestled under the trees

and has the beginnings of a good leaf pile started.

It feels good knowing that every few days

I can deliver all of our kitchen and yard scraps here

and Mother Nature will do the rest.

We are considering putting a shed near this area as well,

to have all of our gardening/yard tools close at hand.

We aren't sure exactly where the drain field is for the septic,

so we cannot plant any veggies here.

Here, our humble beginnings.

A few buckets leftover from our "tin can garden" at the rental,

along with a few new acquisitions are enjoying the full morning sun.

The plan is to level it out a bit,

then use some of my extra feedsacks to line the area for the containers.

Some feedsacks that I have collected have too much sweet feed on them,

and it is too labor intensive to clean them for my daisy tote project,

so this way, they will still have a purpose.

Two jalapeno plants were purchased from farmers at the market last weekend,

to be harvested for use in my pickled okra.

The tub was a plastic bin whose lid was worn out,

so we repurposed it for growing.

A few drainage holes were drilled in the bottom and it was good to go.

Also acquired from the same farmers

were one each of  Cherokee Purple and Brandywine tomatoes.

These are both new varieties for me,

so I can hardly wait to see what comes of it.

These 5-gallon buckets were picked up at the grocery store,

where the bakery uses them for icing.

They are there for the asking, so I ask!

The tomatoes and peppers were given a good dose of turkey poop

when they were transplanted into their respective containers.

That should help them along!

My leek are sorely in need of transplanting.

They take a while to grow to maturity,

and I am grateful that they have hung in there

through all the neglect these past months.

After unpacking this bin with no top

(it was used for large items during the move),

it was elected to be our new leek keeper.

Leeks have to be banked to ensure a full white top,

so this deep container will be perfect for the job.

Drainage holes in the bottom will keep them happy.

I love organizing, and this area needed it badly.

I simply coralled all of the containers I might be able to reuse in the future

and placed them on the side of the garden bed.

Everything has holes in the bottoms, 

so no need to worry about mosquitoes laying eggs when it rains.

Anything without holes naturally gets stored upside-down.

Our deck out back gets filtered light in the spring and summer.

It's the ideal spot for growing herbs

and the bonus is that it's right off the kitchen for easy access.

Right now there are only this thyme and parsley growing,

but we are hoping to put more herbs in soon.

The containers are more icing containers acquired from a local culinary school.

The majority of our beds will be in this area.

We're pretty sure that it's far enough away from the drain field

and it still gets a good deal of light most of the day.

It is sloped, which can be good or bad

(I haven't figured out which yet).

The new idea I am tossing around is straw bale gardening.

I'm researching it now and I think I'd like to give it a go.

This week our buckets rewarded us with this.
Even through neglect and a move,
the garden keeps on giving.
There's a lesson in that.