The cold January air is getting me all sorts of worked up for the summer gardening season. Between the cold air, the sunny days, and the longing to get my hands dirty in my garden, I am a wreck!
Last year, we cut a couple trees down in our yard to make room for our raised beds. We had four raised garden beds out back with the chickens and moved them up to the middle of the yard. Away from those pesky, sneaky tomato eating girls!
This year we plan to add more beds to our yard and have everything right out our back door where I can keep an eye on it daily. You see, last year we had our raised beds here and a large in ground garden at our family farm. The vegetables in the garden over there did soooo well but also so did all the weeds. I just couldn’t keep up! So new plan for this year and I’m going to share all about it!
Raised Beds
Two years ago we built our four raised beds. These beds were so easy to build thanks to this blog I found on Pinterest.
We used 3 – 8 Ft boards to make each bed. One board for each side and one cut in half for each end. We then filled them with soil we had delivered from a local nursery.
The first year we used these beds was also the first year we had our chickens. We had cut down trees out back near the coop to keep our “backyard homestead” all in one area of the yard. Unfortunately, not knowing a great deal about chickens yet, we had the garden beds too close to the girls and they ate everything they could reach. So, word to the wise, keep your chickens out of the garden! Haha!
After learning more about chickens and gardening, this past year we enclosed our chickens, cut down some more trees, and moved the garden beds to another area of the yard. This worked so much better and I was able to grow more than I did the previous year.
This year, we have plans to expand the garden and I can’t wait!! Yes, I am thoroughly excited about this! We are adding a larger “potato patch” bed that will be 16ft x 4ft. I grew potatoes in ground last year at our family farm and they were so dang delicious so I am attempting them again in a raised bed. We are also adding another 4 – 8ft x 4ft beds. In total, as of right now, we will have a total of 9 beds.
Square Foot & Companion Gardening
It was suggested that I look into square foot gardening since I am using raised beds and I want to utilize every inch of space available to me. This is the method of dividing up each bed into one square foot sections. So with our 8×4 ft beds we will have a total of 32 sq ft per bed.
Along with square foot gardening and trying to utilize every inch, I am going to do companion planting. Companion planting is grouping together plants that enjoy the plants next to them.
For example, corn and green beans grow well together. Same for peppers and tomatoes, peas and dill, carrots and garlic. These grow well together so you could plant them in the same bed and should have success.
On the other hand, you don’t want to plant together potatoes and sunflowers, corn and tomatoes, or green beans and garlic. Usually they will end up fighting each other for the nutrients in the soil and you will have poorly growing plants.
Vertical Gardening
Another method I would like to try this year is vertical gardening. I got my feet wet with this last year making a teepee trellis for my cucumbers and it worked out perfectly! I have plans to make another teepee trellis in the same raised bed and grow peas on it. I have never grown peas so it will be a first. My plan is to hopefully get some left over hog paneling from my brother in law and use it to make an arch for my butternut squash!
What Am I Growing?
Now that you know the methods I am going to be using, maybe you’re interested in knowing what I am going to grow? Well, I have tons of interests in growing everything possible BUT if I have learned anything in my years of attempting to garden it is to only grow what you are actually going to use. So, even though I want to grow spaghetti squash again, the chickens got most of what I grew. I also grew eggplant and I only used one eggplant out of all the plant produced and the chickens got those as well. So, although it’s fun to grow random veggies, you don’t want to waste space or money growing something that isn’t going to be useful to you.
Veggies:
- Kale
- Spinach
- Lettuce
- Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Green Beans
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Butternut Squash
- Zucchini
- Cucumbers
- Peas
- Brussel Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
- Garlic – planted in December 2021
- Onions – maybe
Fruit:
- Strawberries
- Blueberries – Planting bushes this year
Herbs:
- Basil
- Oregano
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Lavender
- Parsley
- Chives
- Mint
As of now, this is the list of plants I would love to grow in the garden this yea and I am more than likely missing a plant or two on this list. My plan for this garden is to learn how to grow certain foods, what we like and don’t like to grow, and just basics of gardening. Eventually, we would like to buy more land and have room for a larger garden and an orchard. My goal is to grow all of our food one day, but for now it’s necessary to learn how to grow the basics.
I hope you like this little preview of my summer garden. Are you growing a garden this year? If you are, let me know what you are planning to grow! I love learning and seeing other peoples gardens!
Until next time,
