Garden 2024

My topless greenhouse garden experiment (last year) worked out well enough to encourage me to do more this year. My hubby enlarged the area by adding a fenced in section that is connected to the greenhouse. I added a lot of compost to the garden over the winter months (I would dig a hole, dump in the kitchen scraps and cover it up). I did that all throughout the garden so that there is compost everywhere. I also invested in a raised garden planter and an outdoor potting cabinet to make things easier.

There was also cardboard laid down over the entire garden and leaves dumped on top.

A lot of the leaves have been blown around due to some pretty windy days.

On February 2^nd, the cardboard was removed, and the new raised planter and potting cabinet were installed in the garden.

My hubby tilled the fenced in area and all that compost goodness got turned over. To further enhance things, I bought 7 or 8 (I lost count) bags of compost garden soil and used that for planting seeds and putting around transplants.

On February 27^th, all the leaves were raked onto the compost pile. We created a compost pile in the corner of the garden for kitchen scraps to get dumped there during the gardening season. At the end of the season, the compost will get spread all over the garden area.

March 6^th, the red leaf lettuce, kale and romaine plants were transplanted into the raised planter. I used almost 2 bags of the garden soil to fill the planter.

I also transplanted dill and sage plants into bigger pots. The dill was moved over to the chicken coop as I found out that dill plants will encourage tomato hornworms to visit. And I don’t want that!

On March 8^th, I started planting seeds in the greenhouse section of the garden.

Cucumbers

Corn

Green beans

Watermelon

Pumpkins

The cucumber, corn, green beans, watermelon and pumpkin seeds were all planted in the greenhouse section. Trellises were added for the cucumbers, green beans, watermelon and pumpkins.

The onions were already there from last year – maybe I will get to harvest them this year!

March 11^th – greenhouse section done!

March 16^th, I filled up 2 big planters and planted lavender seeds.

March 17^th, I planted oregano, sage and thyme seeds in the 3-tier planter.

March 23^rd, I started putting plants into the fenced in portion of the garden and I started with eggplant along with some marigolds.

I also planted a bunch of marigold seeds in the cement blocks that border the gulley that runs thru the garden between the greenhouse and fenced area.

And some of the basil plants got transplanted into some cement blocks as well.

March 24^th, the beefsteak tomato plants were planted along with some marigolds. Some of the basil plants still in pots were moved to the tomato plant area along with some thyme plants. Thyme deters the tomato hornworm and marigolds deter aphids. The rest of the herb type plants deter various insects.

March 25^th, cherry tomatoes and bell pepper plants were put into the garden along with more marigolds, basil and thyme plants. Onions were added to the left of the bell peppers (onions are a good companion plant).

Then it was time to plant the potato sprouts. I had some potatoes that had sprouted so I cut them up and planted them in the laundry baskets. That will make it much easier to harvest the potatoes! In the meantime, as the sprouts grow, I will add more dirt to cover up part of the stem. Eventually, the dirt will fill the basket. I have read that doing it this way encourages more potatoes to form. We will see!