The 2011 Veggie Garden

Hi folks - still nothing crafty from me - very disappointed that I did not (again!) get my Christmas cards done in time for this week's challenge over at Sparkle's Christmas Challenge blog. But I should be back either later today or tomorrow with both last week's and this week's!

The veggie garden (and my overflow) is DONE!

It may not look like much but this represents the nine hours of planting I did on Saturday. I started at 8am and finished at 5:00pm.

I think my final tally goes something like this.

In the garden:

• 12 tomatoes
• 6 eggplants
• 2 cucumbers
• 2 green zucchini
• 2 yellow zucchini
• 2 spaghetti squash
• 26 lettuce
• 4 spinach
• 4 parsley
• 20 sweet peppers
• 8 hot peppers (jalapeno, cayenne, carribean, serrano)
• 15 basil
• 6 celery
• 2 garlic chives
• 1 catnip
• from previous years - oregano, mint and hopefully my lemon thyme will return
• sugar snap peas, snow peas, purple beans and green bush beans are planted along the wire fencing that separates the squash from the rest of the garden.

Overflow (not pictured as they were scattered in other beds in the yard)

• 12 tomato plants
• 6 green onion sets
• 12 leek sets
• 2 lemon grass
• 2 coriander (cilantro)
• 1 pineapple sage
• 1 orange mint
• 2 English Lavender

As my other half calls it - extreme gardening. With such limited space in the 'burbs for a garden, I'm a big fan of intensified, companion planting. Basically, you find out which plants grow well together and you mix them together. Doubling what would normally be planted in an area. Thus, the tomatoes were mixed with celery, onions and leeks. The peppers were mixed with basil.

I have not yet tackled my flower beds. Not sure if I will this weekend or not. I get the feeling I will though.

Hope you are all having a lovely holiday weekend - whether it is Victoria Day or Memorial Day in your neck of the woods.

The irony of it all

This is what I spent my last couple of days doing....


Two and a half hours on Thursday at a garden centre and then a local nursery to buy this year's veggies and herbs for planting in our garden.

Tip - don't wear your high heel shoes from work while trudging around buying plants.  My feet still have not forgiven me.


Friday I spent four hours first thing in the morning, prepping the veggie garden.

The semi-circle raised bed has a radius of about twelve feet and I turned the top 10 to 12 inches of soil in the entire garden. Oh, and I removed all the dead herbs that didn't survive winter. Then another half  hour on Friday night to give one final rake-over of the entire space to make sure the surface is relatively even.

Hopefully tomorrow the weed barrier gets put down and I can get most of the planting done.

The irony in all this? My latest order from Stamping Bella arrived today ... and I don't see me getting any time to stamp until at least Sunday. And only then if I am not too tired and all the veggies are planted. I haven't even bought any flowers yet for planting in all the flower beds around the yard. Good thing we have lots of perennials and rose bushes!

Hopefully I will get back later this weekend. If not with crafty pics, at least with garden pics!

Have a great weekend!