Yesterday I shared how we are gardening with our neighbors this year. We’ll all plant a little something in our yard, with Nicki and Harvey having the most with the raised beds. The idea is that we’ll know where our food is coming from while dividing the cost and labor across three households. Yeah for having someone to watch your back while you’re on vacation!
This weekend we planted our seeds and seedlings.
We are using a method similar to Square Foot Gardening where you put your plants super close together to maximize space and minimize weeds. The beauty of raised beds is that you can reach each part of the bed without stepping on your soil. The reason for traditional large rows of plants is to accommodate for the width of a plow…. no plow needed here! Instead we broke our garden plot into the four raised beds for easy access.
Suzette and Simran planting seeds.
We put in different types of lettuces and spinach, peppers, spring onions, some herbs, peas, green beans, radishes, and probably some things I’m forgetting.
Here Suzette is sprinkling dirt over lettuce seeds (I think). Harvey taught us seeds that only require a 1/4″ of soil on top can be sprinkled on top the soil then covered with a smattering of top soil instead of digging a tedious 1/4″ for each seed. That’s why he’s in charge.
Ryan borrowed some gardening gloves from Kevin (Suzette’s husband).
We bought tomato plants for the tomato bed. They have their own dedicated space since we all eat so many tomatoes. We planted two large sandwich tomatoes, one cherry tomato, and one roma tomato.
With all the hands, planting four plants took little time.
We then caged them for support later in the season. I’m not kidding when I say they grow as tall as trees. Harvey really has a green thumb. I won’t be surprised when these little seedlings are taller than the cages at the end of the summer.
We still have a few things to get into the ground at Harvey’s – some eggplant and more herbs. Suzette will add some cherry tomatoes to her yard and I’ll be adding cucumbers and various squash to mine. We are very ambitious, but hope all our hard work pays off.
Are you planting anything this year?
Comments (2)
I would have loved doing this when I was younger and could tend the garden…but now if I “get down”…it’s too hard to get up! Ha! 🙂
Used to do a traditional HUGE garden and spend hours tending, weeding and canning. Now we use containers…and a loft bed taken apart and remade for a strawberry “bed”. I plant tomatoes, onions are in, and sweet potatoes. The potatoes are started inside and I have so many starts I am giving them away. How fun for all the children to grow their own food!