Winter 2014 (January - March)

Now that it's not so bloody cold out (we've had several days in the 40s and 30s!), we have put together a few more garden beds and fixed things up a bit in the garden. We now have a total of 18 different edible garden areas in the back yard. I'll go through each of them and give you an update on cost below.

To date (Mid-May through then end of January) we have spent $1,099.23. That includes all supplies, tools, seeds, soil, wood, and greenhouses. Anything I put into the garden. Due to having 2 separate gardening areas, I've broken down the layout into Garden A (behind the shed) and Garden B (by the pool). Within these Gardens are 18 different beds.

Garden A: 

• Beds 1-4 are the raised beds (2'x4'). They currently house shallots, brussel sprouts, broccoli, onions & tomatoes.
• Bed 5 is a greenhouse and houses the starters for cucumbers, strawberries, borage, dill, cilantro, caraway, and summer savory.
• Bed 6 is the 12" deep front half of the in-ground bed (4'x4') and houses sweet peppers, jalapeno peppers, and tomatoes.
• Bed 7 is the 24" deep back half of the in-ground bed (4'x4') and has the last few cabbage plants. In another week I will be planting carrots there.
• Bed 8 is the banana tree (about 5' now) and the lone yam plant that survived summer and fall.
• Bed 9 is a new bed we just made by tilling the ground and adding soil and fertilizer. We used plastic border edging to keep the soil in place (5'x8'). This bed houses carrots, horseradish, asparagus, lettuce, and sugar peas.
• Bed 10 are two blueberry bushes we planted.
• Bed 11 is actually two 32  gal. garbage cans that we drilled holes in and lined with weed guard. Three potato plants are in each can.

 

 

Garden B:

• Bed 11 is the calamando tree.
• Bed 12 houses garlic and radishes (2' x 9').
• Bed 13 houses rosemary, thyme, and oregano (2' x 5').
• Bed 14 are two Topsy Turvey Tomato bags.
• Bed 15 is a hanging pot holding a strawberry plant.
• Bed 16 are two established grape vines that crawl all over the lattice (6' x 10').
• Bed 17 is the 15 gal. herb pot housing lavender, basil, stevia, arugula, and cilantro.
• Bed 18 are 3 hanging pots of purslane and 5 hanging pots of lavender.

 

Yields:

We keep getting peppers and now jalapeno as well in pretty good quantities. Herbs are still flourishing although I don;t know if the thyme will come back once it gets warmer. We harvested our first head of broccoli yesterday and ate it today (yummy!). Tomatoes are a bit sporadic, but they're still growing which is good. The calamando is full of ping-pong ball sized orange fruits that go really well with fish and we're even pulling a few radishes still. Other than that, nothing much is ripe yet.