2013 Garden - The Beginning

It is hard to garden, when you have a black thumb. Well, at least partially black. I can keep plants alive for a while, but my past gardens were flops. What else do you call it when you harvest 9 tomatoes off of 26 bushes in the whole season? The radishes and garlic disappeared completely, and the corn was small and barely pollenated. That was in 2011.

Last year, I didnt bother. By the time I was motivated, the growing season was half over. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

So this year, I want to do better. My soil here is clay. Clay can be hard to work with, and I loathe weeding. 2 kiddie pools looked like a great solution! I drilled drain holes in the bottoms, bought my dirt bags and spent a day mixing soil at a 2 to 1 ratio. My arms ached, as did my back. When I went inside to get something, the dogs had a grand time rolling and digging in the pools.
We put up the baby corral around the pools, and added more containers into the mix. The black coi pond has tomatoes and strawberries in the shallow part, and potatoes will go in the deep portion. So far tan containers have bell peppers and cauliflower in them. Pumpkin will go in the last one, I suspect.

We have corn, peas, and onions in one seed greenhouse, and 3 kinds of hot peppers in another. I srptill need to lay the straw under the berry pkants, plant 3 last marigolds, finish reviving the cucumbers that the babies helped, and plant carrots.