Planting Our Spring Garden

It may have taken several weeks to finally get around to it, but it’s done; our vegetable garden is planted.

A few weeks ago, I shared with you all about how we built our raised garden bed. It sat obnoxiously empty for nearly the next month while we attempted to tackle our kitchen project. Since we’ve officially taken the gardening plunge, I’m ready to catch you all up on where we are 10 days post-plant.

Our Soil

We decided that since we’re following Mel Bartholomew’s square foot gardening plan that it was only appropriate to use his soil mixture: Mel’s Mixture. His soil mixture calls for equal parts vermiculite, peat moss, and compost. 

We purchased our soil ingredients at our local Home Depot. Because we don’t currently have our own compost pile, we had to resort to purchasing compost. Mel suggests at least five kinds of compost, but we purchased a bag of locally-created compost out of a variety of materials and just prayed it had enough. 

I’m in the process of trying to figure out how to effectively compost on our property. Because it’s sort of “wilderness” out here, I hesitate to have anything open for fear of drawing unwanted critters. But I don’t want to sell a body part in order to afford a compost bin. Basically, we’re at an impasse.

The Planting

We snagged a variety of seed packets as well as some already-started vegetables that are more temperature-sensitive.

In the square-foot-gardening method, each vegetable is given a certain amount of square footage in which to do its growing. Our spaghetti squash, for example, required two square feet of space. Our yellow tomato, green pepper, and eggplant each require one square.

As far as seeds go, I over-planted most of them. My plan is to thin them out as they sprout. From seed, we planted green beans, yellow squash, carrots, and cucumbers; aside from the yellow squash, I can get multiple seeds into a square-foot plot, so several of these, like the carrots (16 plants in a square foot), will give us tons of reward for little space.

So far our green beans are the champs. Those bad boys are growing at Jack-and-the-beanstalk rates. They started to sprout at about five days post-planting and only continue to thrive. We’re about 10-days post-planting and have yet to see anything from the cucumber patch. We had the strangest April “cold snap” about five days into the planting (well, cold for us), and because cucumbers are so sensitive to cold (anything lower than 60 degrees), I’m wondering if that’s why we haven’t seen anything in that plot yet.

The Problems

Already we’ve faced a few issues.

For starters, something is already eating the leaves of my plants. I don’t ever find anything on them when I check during daylight hours, so I’m assuming the culprit is a nighttime enemy. I’m honestly ready to go on a night watch to catch the little buggers in action. 

I’m not really wanting to spray any chemicals on the vegetables, so I need to do a little research to address it before it gets out of control.

Our well water is also problematic. We treat our water with salt, so I’ve been attempting to avoid watering the plants with well water during this stage of their development so that I don’t unintentionally dry them out. I’ve read several accounts where people used treated well water on their vegetable garden just fine and others who tell horror stories. I’m not sure which camp to align myself with quite yet. I’ll just keep using jugs of Publix spring water until I get brave enough to make a decision

My plan is to turn this yard into a treasure trove of edibles. And can. But I think I already shared that dream with you.

I did make one dream happen. I found a vintage straw hat with a leather strap to wear while I garden. Now, I just need some overalls to complete the look. 

Send your favorite gardening suggestions my way! Which vegetables are your favorite? What’s your gardening secret weapon? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!