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| "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce." - Jeremiah 29:5 |
Hey Ya'll! This year Andrew and I decided we wanted to plant a vegetable garden. I, personally, have never grown anything, and am a little intimidated by this adventure. After all, I do well if I remember to water the flowers in my kitchen... Andrew on the other hand is pretty familiar to gardening. His family has a garden every year! So thankfully, we have plenty of knowledgable gardeners to seek out for advice and help.
Before we started, I did a little research to see how and when we needed to start out garden. I found the chart below to be extremely helpful!
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| Image via Pinterest |
The first step was deciding where we wanted to place our garden. There were a few obstacles we had to overcome. One major one, making the area out of reach for the pups. They have an invisible fence that keeps them confined to a small portion of our front yard, both side yards, and the entire back yard. So in order to not have the garden in our front yard (
classy...) we opted to build a fence in our side yard to keep them and other critters, mainly deer, out. This allowed us to have maximum space to plant, lots of sunlight, and minimal damage from the pups. Another large factor was making sure the soil was in good shape for growing vegetables and received lots of sunlight. We tend to have rocky soil, so Andrew tilled the area three times, as of today. He let it rain, dry out, and tilled the area. We are hoping to get two more tills in before we plant, just to make sure the soil is soft.
Next step, and the fun part, was deciding what we wanted to grow. We stopped by a local feed and seed store and purchased a variety of vegetable seeds - green beans, corn, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, okra, watermelons, and potatoes (not from seeds). We have based our planting schedule off the schedule above, so the only vegetables that have been planted so far are potatoes. To do so, Andrew took a garden hoe and dug a 10 inch deep hole. He put two potato eyes inside and covered it with dirt. He spaced the holes 12-16 inches apart, and planted around 20 holes. Now we have to wait and see how they do!
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| Here is where the potatoes are planted - on the outside of the fence. |
For sizing and spacing, the garden is 60 feet x 25 feet. Andrew advises when you start planting to come 30 inches from the outside of the garden and plant your first row. If you plant each row 30 inches apart, it should leave you with an approximate two foot walkway between rows. He also recommends planting vegetables that grow taller (pole beans and corn) together, then mid-height vegetables (okra) next, and lastly ground growing vegetables (cucumbers, squash, and zucchini) after that. Our potatoes are on the outside of the fenced in area, since they will grow in the ground. Also outside of the fence are watermelons, since they tend to take off once they grow.
As a friendly reminder, most everyone loves home grown, fresh corn. Planting corn behind pole beans can "hide" it from plain view, and may decrease the likelihood of people stealing your corn!
I hope to post updates as we plant more vegetables! If you grow a garden, I hope you have a successful season and harvest. Here's hoping the Lord blesses ours. Then learning to can the vegetables will be the next adventure...
xo ~ Brittney
