The garden building is mostly done...it just needs the topsoil now. This week the wood was installed along the fence and covered in landscaping fabric to avoid any chemicals there might be on the treated wood. We then broke up more of the existing dirt and moved it around so it's somewhat level. Since it's the first weekend in March and I shouldn't start planting anything until Mid-April, we are going to wait to buy dirt until the end of March. We went from a 0% chance of getting a truckload of dirt to a 1oo% chance because we started pricing it and it is significantly cheaper than buying the bags of topsoil.
Here are a few pictures of the progress:
Since I have a few weeks before the topsoil will go in, I'm going to start doing some research on types of seeds and planning out where I want everything to go. So this is where I need reader advice! Is there a particular brand of seed that has worked well for you? I've already decided not to start the seeds indoors because we have such a long growing season here, but if you have any experience doing it one way or another, I'd love to hear it!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
One Dump Truck Of Dirt Away From A Garden
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3 comments:
In your climate, you should be able to grow any variety of zucchini, carrots, snap peas, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and cilantro without a problem and without starting the seeds inside. Buy already-growing tomatoes and basil so that you can enjoy them longer and get more out of them. Basil lets you cut leaves off and then it keeps growing. Cilantro does not. You could definitely grow thyme, oregano, and possibly rosemary as perennials. If you grow mint (which is GREAT and easy to grow), keep it in a container or it will take over your garden, and cut it back before it goes to seed. Herbs make a pretty garden border.
Bloomsdale spinach is a fabulous variety -- hardy but also stands up to hot weather. And...it was created by my ancestors generations ago outside of Philadelphia, so I'm partial to it.
Good luck!
Oh, and you should REALLY check out Animal, Vegetable, Miracle from your library before you get any farther along -- Barbara Kingsolver will give you a great idea of how to make the most of your garden (planting carrots in the spring and again in the fall, same with lettuce and spinach, when to plant garlic, etc), but she won't bore you to death.
By: Hillary on March 9, 2010 at 2:03 AM
Thanks for the advice Hillary - I just requested that book from the library so I look forward to reading it!
By: Liz on March 9, 2010 at 9:58 AM
Nice start on the garden. I'd love to hear what you guys end up deciding to plant. That's definitely something we can't do in Estes. The deer and elk would gobble anything up before we could get to it. Maybe a small greenhouse some day...?
By: Anonymous on March 21, 2010 at 6:47 PM
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