New Garden Bed!

The title says it all; I have a new garden bed that I'm very excited about. And I'll have to do a few posts on it to break it up into sections since I type so much. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures that I took while making it because I deleted them thinking that I would need the space on my card for something else. Well, on with the story!

To start with, I was unable to make a raised bed because honestly I don't have the money for it (raised bed frames at Lowes were like 100 dollars) plus I'd have to buy a ton of dirt to fill it with, and that would be very difficult, especially since I don't have a truck. Sooo I decided to go it pioneer style and hollow out a section of the ground and then fill it. I mainly made the garden for Zucchini, squash and sunflowers- plants that are difficult to grow in buckets.

To test the soil, I initially went to one section of our backyard where I wanted to plant the garden in the first place because it gets great sun and it's next to a wall so I can easily use the wall to support the sunflowers. However, upon digging in this spot a few times with the shovel, I quickly realized that digging would be difficult here since the soil was chock full of rocks and large chunks of concrete left over from the old inground pool that my landlady had filled in. I was a little disappointed because this area seemed like a perfect place for my future garden.

So then I went to the other side of our backyard, which seemed relatively free of as many rocks as the other side. The area that I chose is partially covered by shade (kind of a good thing, kind of bad) and when I tried digging with the shovel, it was much easier than I thought it would be. So I got started! I just began digging and digging. I dug through a few inches of dirt and rock, then hit a black plastic sheeting barrier, then went deeper into what seemed like a much richer sandy/clay mix. I still encountered quite a few rocks, but overall it was much easier than the other side would have been.



Rocks in the soil on the side of the yard I wanted to plant on.



Other side of the yard- looks much more promising!

Planning the garden wasn't a lot of work. I knew that I just needed enough space for my sunflowers, zucc's and the plants I had bought. Here is my plan:

My compass is wrong. Top part should be South. I'm tired!!

I put the sunflowers out in full sun, because I figured they would need it the most, as well as my peppers. My Zucc's are now in the shade mostly, and I'm not sure how that will affect their yield.

Digging was SUCH grueling work. I didn't measure out the garden, but I planned a general small rectangle that wouldn't overwhelm me and cause too much havoc in the backyard. I had asked my landlady once before if I could do stuff back there and she had said yes, but I never asked her a second time just to make sure it would be okay....so yeah....if she had gone back there and seen half the yard dug out I'm sure she would have done a back flip. Plus, I didn't want to overwhelm myself. So it's kind of small, but the area is big enough for me to actually lie down in.

I dug a little more than a foot deep. The very spot I had chosen used to be where some kind of palm plant used to be, so I hit upon old roots that made work even harder. I pulled up all kinds of strange dead roots that looked like underground hornet nests. It was a real excavation! I also encountered an old piece of poured concrete that must have been where someone had put a metal post in the ground. So it kind of takes up space, but not too badly.

Unfortunately I only have pictures now of filling it in with dirt, but you get the idea.

Different dirts and mixing. I'm adding lots of peat moss, regular vegetable soil mix and some of the dirt I took from the ground.

You can see the strong shadow cast by the wall.

Can you see it? It's way over there by the wall! I spread the dirt out around it.

FINALLY all filled.



Here is another shot of the soil raked away.



The whole process was very tiring. I would work on it after work, but after a few days I became completely worn out and needed rest. It took a week longer than I thought it would, so I had to emergency transplant my sunflowers and zucchini. NOT good. Eventually after much hard labor, I finally hollowed out the entire area and then began filling it with dirt. I filled it with roughly 2 bags of peat moss which my mom had recommended, some of the natural clay sand soil, and many bags of good vegetable growing soil from Lowes. Putting the natural soil back in was difficult because it was (and still is) full of small and big rocks and clumps of old Bermuda grass. I had to do a lot of sifting. And it took FOREVER just to fill the entire bed completely. Finally one evening at sundown I finished it. I then once again repotted my sunflowers and zucchini for a SECOND time to their new home. I wouldn't be surprised if those plants struggle because I put them through tons of stress.



The day after. You can see how the area near the wall is still moist, even after a full day of sun.



My bed looked great. Such a terrific payoff to backbreaking labor and a slight sunburn!

Everything dug and planted. The End!!

Yet another...garden update!

Once again, being now somewhat addicted to growing things, I decided to take on Lettuce. Right now is a great time to plant it, as the danger of frost is over and the night time temperatures are in the high 40's and 50's. I'm a little nervouse to try lettuce because it seems harder to grow than the other plants I have, but I'm willing to try it. So I went to the dollar store and bought two long pots. I hope that these pots are okay to grow in, because I could tell they've been sprayed with some kind of coloring. Well, they are obviously made in china, so I hope that no chemicals leech off the paint and into the soil and then into my plant of course. But I guess I'll just take my chances.

I went to Lowes and bought 3 large bags of planting mix. While I was there I also bought 3 packets of Lettuce seeds (I didn't really realize how many seeds came in each packet!- There are a lot!). Then I also decided to buy some more tomato plants, since the ones at Lowes were farther along than mine. I started my two tomato plants 2 months too late apparently. I'll have to compare all of my plants and see how they do when it gets hotter. But anyway, I was really surprised at just how cheap plants are! I got 4 tomato plants for 2 dollars, and their other vegetables were super cheap too. I had to refrain from purchasing anything else.



Lettuce!

 My gardening book told me that I should put the lettuce seeds in the fridge for a few days to prepare them for growing, but I was way too excited to wait for that. I immediately planted and watered them! I put in like 4 seeds per planter, so hopefully that won't be too crowded.



DEAL!!!



Later I had an urge to go to the D.I. (a favorite thrift store of mine) and take a look around. Of course I happened upon a terrific deal- this purple glazed pot for only 12 dollars! These things usually cost about 50. It's large enough to plant a tomotao in I think, which is terrific because now that I have 6 tomatoes, I'll need to find more places to put them.



So now here below is a picture of all my plants. I feel like my squash is really yellow, and I don't know if it's the chemicals in the soil or what. Maybe I planted my squashes in the wrong kind of mix. But hopefully when I transplant it then it will become more healthier looking. One of my pots of sunflower seeds never really made it. And so I quickly planted 3 more seeds and started again. Now all three have popped up and things are looking good so far! I'm going to wait just a few days before transplanting my tomatoes that I bought at Lowes.



Planties.



Speaking of one of my earlier things I noticed about Arizona....This is my neighbors tree behind our house...I'm pretty sure those are the same fruits on it from like a year ago. Why don't people pick the fruit offf their trees? It's incredibly annoying. Maybe it's because I heard that scorpions live in Citrus trees here, so maybe picking them is a dangerous operation? Who knows.

Pick your fruit already!!!



Sunflowers- so easy to grow!



The rains started coming and drenched my flowers a little too much, but I really enjoyed having the rain and I hope it rains again soon!

This is a picture of my bike, it was made in the late 70's I think. I LOVE my bike! lovelovelove. I added back double baskets to it to fit my laptop and all the other tons of junk that I haul to school when I need to. Brown wasn't my desired color, but the bike was in such excellent condition that I really had to go for it. So far it has served me well, and looks so much better than the typical cookie cutter beach cruiser that every 18 year old has on campus.

I made cookies for a baptism...just sharpening my culinary skills for my future family! And trying to be an exemplary member of the church by being a domestic goddess. (lol) Ghirardelli chocolate chips were on sale too! So they ended up being cheaper than Tollhouse for once.

While I was making cookies, a very cute neighbor guy came to my door to tell me that someone's car lights were on. I thanked him and he kind of chuckled at me. Later on I realized just how terrible I looked while making these. OOPS! I forgot to wear makeup and a cute dress while I baked these! Soooo I guess I'm not quite the perfect homemaker that I thought I was. Hopefully I will bump into the cute guy again. I thought about leaving my left over cookies at his doorstep and then realized that might be a little too creepy. *sigh!* oh well.

YUM



And last but not least I just want to complain how what you see when you blog on here is not what you get. My image formatting is way out of line!! Frustrating.

Garden Update

If there is anything that I've been learning about growing a garden, it's that plants take a LONG time to grow! Maybe it's because I never really paid attention to my mom's garden when I lived with my family, because I remember one day she would be planting seeds and then it seemed like a few weeks later she was already harvesting the fruits of her labors!

My seeds have sprouted quickly, but it seems that they have hit a point where they have started to grow more slowly. I suppose I'm just too impatient. Below are my three sunflowers. So far one is already above the ground, and it still even has the seed still stuck to the top of it! The other will probably take a little bit longer to sprout. I'm very excited for the sunflowers. I got the seeds at a dollar store and they were only 12 cents!

Here are my squash, zucchini and tomato plants. I feel like the squash and zucchini are growing much slower now. The tomato plants are super small and really cute! But I realize now that I should have started all of my seeds back in December. The books I've read tell me that I should start everything in February, but I think that it means the plants should be a certain number of weeks old. SO....I think I might buy a tomato plant that's farther along- but only when I know that it won't be freezing again.

Here are my flowers! Doing great as usual. I've been protecting them from the freezing night time temperatures by covering them up. They are still alive, so I guess it must be working!

The funny thing about gardening is that it's really addictive. Now that I've grown a few seeds, I want to grow more and more! Of all different kinds of plants and flowers. I see the seeds at the stores and all I can think is how fun they are to grow and how cheap they are...and the result provides you with beauty and food. I do become really impatient- I want my tomatoes to have fruit now!! But, I'm sure that this will teach me some patience.