Potatoes and Such

This is the "new" raised bed we put in sometime last spring. I planted some carrots in it but then ended up neglecting it water-wise. We cut away some of the low-hanging tree branches and I have vowed to keep it well-watered. Since our sprinkler system is broken, we'll probably have to purchase some more splitters and lay out some "semi-permanent" drip hose to those places. Again, I digress.

I usually get too ambitious and specific with my plans so I decided to just throw a single picture of what can/should be planted together and wait to do the detailed plan until I've actually planted it. This is what the planted bed looks like.

Though they're impossible to see in this picture, I put 2 42" tomato cages in the back right and planted 2 different types of peas underneath each. I hadn't planned on planting peas but decided later to do it since they're cheap and are a nice snacky veggie that likes the chillier temps of spring. I find tomato cages pretty annoying to use with actual tomatoes and figured this would be a much better use for them.

The empty spaces are left for green beans and pepper plants in late May/early June. I might plant some lettuces, etc. in a couple of weeks so I'm not overwhelmed by lettuce all at once. Will also put some flowers: alyssum, marigolds, chamomile.

We had some pretty major wind last night and it blew the straw off the west potato patch so I'll have to go re-cover that. I need to give it a good soaking today, too. (The potatoes are on the north side of the bed.)

Root Crops

The soil at my community garden plot is nice and loamy and I noticed last year that the radishes and carrots I planted did really well. This year, even though I'll still be able to plant my garden at home, I'm choosing to concentrate my root crops in my SPCG plot.

One of the meals we really like is a roasted vegetable "pile" consisting of some combination of carrots, potatoes, beets, turnips, onions, parsnips, and sweet potatoes. Cut everything up and soak in olive oil, put a little seasoning on, and eat way more than you thought you would (we primarily eat only 1 main dish for meals and we can clean out a 9 x 12 pan easily). Leftovers, if you have them, are also good on spaghetti, surprisingly. But, I digress.

Back to growing root crops.

Sally recommends interplanting carrots, onions, and beets to help keep away carrot flies (the onions scare them away, apparently).

To prepare the soil, dig it deep; a few inches deeper than a carrot seems logical to me. Turnips can fit in with these root veggies and instead of where the beets would go. In my plot, I shoved soil aside in a 2 x 3 ish area and randomly placed onion sets then sprinkled 10 or 15 beet seeds, then sprinkled carrot seeds, a few turnip seeds, put some parsley on the edges, and some lettuce on the other edge. When the plants start to come up, I'll be able to see where the holes are and fill in with any of those shown above. I'll have a variety of greens all in the same place (turnips and beets make good stir-fry greens) and it will look interesting with all different textures of greens growing in the same place. "Filling in the gaps" will serve as succession planting so I don't have a glut of all the same thing all at the same time.

2011 Garden News! :)

Started planting herbs/marigolds in December and they're really doing well! Have since planted various heirloom tomatoes and peppers, more basil, more herbs, and a tray of flowers.

3/11 - Friday afternoon - on my way home breezed past Fort Collins Nursery and picked up onion sets and seed potatoes.

3/12 - Saturday - drove past the community garden plot on the way to school to plant seeds. Installed 3rd grow light on the grow tray, planted a flat of 72 with flowers: pansies, geranium, bachelor's buttons, snapdragons. Counted plants coming up in other flats.

3/13 - Sunday - Dragged L to Fort Collins Nursery to get early season seeds and some more winter squash seeds for variety. Afterward, headed to Spring Creek Community Garden plot (A2). I have been making plans using growveg.com but it's always best to stand in front of it and do the physical layout before planting anything. Took a rake over the surface to clean off last year's weeds, not a perfect job but it'll do. Planted spinach, lettuce, borage seeds and a few onion sets in the "strawberry patch". Tore up a section and planted turnip, carrot, beet, onion mix with some parsley and lettuce tossed in on the edges. Should be an interesting look when they start to pop up. Also laid out stones and took a veg ladder to eyeball the winter squash areas. Have a couple more stones to lay out and a couple of small areas to plant (another ~3 x 2 area of parsnips, turnips, lettuce, onions), 1' square sections of green onions, lettuce (in between walking bricks), that can all be done this week. Have largely neglected my beds here at home for the time being since they'll mostly be summer vegetables and potatoes (April planting).

Pictures to accompany shortly.