Just wanted to celebrate planting my veggie garden!

My back aches, and I have blisters on my palms, but I got the majority of my garden planted today! I found a veggie garden planning program with a 45 day free trial, and played around with a bunch of different arrangements till I found something I thought would work. I ended up kind of borrowing from Square Foot Gardening and planting in blocks, rather than long rows, with a few access paths in between. I hope I didn't overseed, as I just sprinkled the seed around in the block for carrots, green onions, spinach, and lettuce. For the peas, I put a length of rabbit fencing about 15 feet long, and planted a double row of peas on each side of it. I think I should have gotten taller stakes for it, though--by the time I pressed them down into the soil, they only went up about half the height of the fencing. I may have to replace them before the peas start trying to tip over the fence trellis!

I also planted beans in two blocks, about 7 feet by 4 feet each variety, and left room to sow another set in a couple of weeks, to extend the harvest. Each of those blocks had 3 closely spaced rows.

I put in 3 hills of watermelons, though they are spaced closer than the package recommends. I planted Moon & Stars (purple with large yellow and white blotches), Sugar Baby, and Trillion.

Still need to finish hardening off the tomatoes, buy some peppers and a couple broccoli plants, and plant some sweet corn. I hope to have room to put a row of basil & some dill in somewhere, but they may get relegated to the herb garden again. I might just do the dill at the feet of the cucumbers I'm planning to grow up a trellis, and see if I can put the basil right in front of the tomatoes. There is nothing like fresh tomato & basil salad!

Anyway, will try to post how it goes, if I can still access everything, if it really cuts down on weeding as promised, etc. There is a certain logic to it--with a long narrow garden,I felt I was using way too much of my space on aisles between the rows!

Booker

Congratulations!! Good for you! Check the variety of your broccoli, you want a quick growing variety like DeCicco for this time of year. Brassicas will bolt more quickly in the heat. You can also plant a 2nd crop in the fall. Broccoli and those type of crops like a nip of frost they are sweeter for it! :)

No way is overseeding a problem. I do it that way all the time. But you are going to have to steel yourself to thinning them out. An iron toothed rake and a strong nerve will do the trick. And btw those thinnings are wonderful in salads and stir fry!

Good idea to replace your pea fence stakes, once they start coming the weight will pull that over. :)

I love to read this kind of thing, more partner's in garden veggie crime are always welcome! LOL

Thanks for the input on the broccoli. I've never grown any of that family of veggies before, so I'm totally open to suggestions! How tall do they get?

How big do you let the seedlings get before thinning? I'll have to get over my aversion to thinning. . .when I plant tomatoes, flowers, etc., I'm always trying to plant the thinnings over into new cells. LOL I've never grown spinach or romaine before, either, and I know I should have gotten them started a lot earlier. Just had the problem of rain every time I had someone scheduled to come till it up for me!

Angie

It's been hard getting anything started this spring, with the rain and the cold.

Your seedlings should have 2 true leaves before you thin. If you plant your spinach, romaine etc type crops under and around your tomatoes, they will last longer. And succession sow every 2 weeks for a continuous crop. The salad crops like it cool, the tomatoes provide shade and the salad cools their feet which conserve moisture and smothers out weed seeds. :)

Good idea! I was going to plant some basil there (got a basil seed tape as an experiment), but some lettuce and spinach will fit in, too. I even thought about trying to grow a few peas up the outside of the tomato cages, but wasn't sure how well they'd play together. Any thoughts?

Shouldn't be a problem with the peas and maters as long as those cages are really sturdy. That's a lot of combined weight when you get both vine and fruit. I usually plant some dill in a container and bury it next to my cukes, that way, it can't get crazy but I have fresh dill to make pickles..........yummy!

Oooh, does dill spread? I have a bunch started indoors that I was planning to put all around my cukes. Would railroad ties be enough to keep it contained? I did bury a container for my chives, so they didn't go off and running. Did the same with mint at my old duplex, and it escaped anyway. At least it smelled good when DH mowed, unlike the garlic chives he mows around our grape vine now. I love garlic, but UGH it gets a little overpowering!

When we had gardens in Maine, dad would mix radish seeds with the stuff he planted (although there is a story there too about planting everything at one time). The radishes would grow really fast so they would space out the other stuff as you pulled out the radishes. Worked really well in the carrots and swiss chard.

Amen, Hastur, I buy radish seed by the pound, LOL I use it for row markers, trap crop, inter plant with other root veggies and just good eating! I love the daikon white ones, they are great for stir fry