I Planted That Garden!

About a month ago, I planted a cool weather garden, hoping to get some results before the nights started to get too cold. I tore out the dying tomato plants, the dead lemon cucumbers, the eggplants which wouldn't be able to ripen any more than they had, and I bought a bunch of organic soil amendment to add to the dwindling supply of compost from my compost bin. I also threw in a bunch of chicken manure and bat guano and turned everything in with my turning fork really well before I started planting.

I spent a couple of hours wandering our nursery, sort of basking in the potential. It's this thing I have with nurseries and art supply stores. All the potential! I'm greedy for it, truth be told. And I sort of was on a planting tear (having bought a bunch of plants and pots for the inside of the house, already, focusing on my new Hoya obsession), so I had to reign myself in and remind myself how much space I had to work with for the time being.

So here's the list: several different kinds of lettuce, celery (we make lots of soup), kale, sugar snap peas, cauliflower and broccoli, golden beets, sweet onions, globe artichoke and leeks. We had some marigolds left, and since they attract beneficial nematodes, I decided to leave them in the beds for a bit longer. If they go to seed, I'll have some for next year!

 I also renewed our fresh herbs. Oregano, Italian parsley, chives, tarragon, sage. I added a yarrow plant for the hummingbirds and the bees.

So here we are, a month later, and things have been growing pretty well. I don't think I'll get great results from the peas, though they may surprise me... 

 The lettuce, on the other hand seems quite happy!

Since it got down to freezing this past weekend, I bought some row covers to put over everything at night so I didn't lose my hard work. I picked up some pet-friendly slug and snail killer, too, since we've had some rain and they can decimate a vegetable garden overnight. The row covers are the fabric-looking stuff in front of the beds.

I'm thinking of trying my hand at espalier this spring, and adding a few more boxes to my garden beds. It'll certainly pretty up my fence!

In case you missed it, here's my kitchen garden Pinterest board! Lots of fun ideas for gardening.

The Kitchen Garden

Find this pic here.

One of the other goals I have for the upcoming year is to  get back to gardening more. Honestly, part of me has made this decision because I really don't want to contribute to the upcoming economy more than I absolutely have to. (Don't go there.) 

I've also missed gardening. I haven't grown pumpkins in a few years, and Mr. ShellHawk has taken over growing the tomatoes and other summer veggies. 

This autumn, I cleaned out our raised beds and planted them with cool weather crops. We have several kinds of lettuce, kale, broccoli, leeks, sweet onions, snap peas, beets and cauliflower. The lettuce is almost ready to eat! Yay!

In typical fashion, I dove down the rabbit hole of research for expanding our garden for the spring and summer, and created The Kitchen Garden Pinterest board. If you're interested in gardening next season, it's got bunches of cool books on growing in small spaces, seed collection and storage and food preservation, tools, design ideas, etc. for your perusal. If you click on the books and the tools, it's going to take you to where you can purchase them if you wish to.

My brain has been working overtime on ideas for the garden, I have to say! I do wish I could raise some bees, too, but I know my dogs, and man, is that asking for trouble! I might just grab a bee house, though... And a bat house... And...