It was a beautiful day for gardening. Sunny, mid 60's, with a gentle, caressing breeze. And Lexie, the destroyer:
Lexie is a stray puppy that we got from the pound. She has destroyed many things with those brand new teeth of hers. I wish I had better pictures of her but whenever I come close to take a picture she tries to eat the camera.
This is Lexie relaxing on the bed she "made" from the cushion from one of our yard chairs.
In spite of all her efforts, I managed to plant the purple onion sets I got two weeks ago, plus garlic. This is the first time I try to grow garlic
The only thing I knew about growing garlic is to plant it with the pointy end up. Lucky for me the bag the garlic came in told me how deep to plant it and how far apart.Besides the garlic and the onion, the following went into my square foot gardening beds:
Apache salad onions - seedlings I started from seed
White onions - seedlings I started as well
Mignon carrots - same as above
Pink and red radish - sown directly in soil
Tom Thumb lettuce - sown directly in soil
TinTin lettuce - same as above
Head lettuce - same
Broccoli di Cicco - same as above
Once the beds were fully planted I secured the grids and attached the corner posts.
Here are both my Square Foot Garden beds. One is finished with the temporary protective wire cage. Next, I will finish putting the rock down around the beds. Last, I will build a fence around the bed area so that I can remove the individual wire cages.
Last year, I planted all my vegetables in a patch. I grew a lot of stuff in this plot but it was a lot of work keeping it weed free, that is why I decided on the Square Foot Gardening and self-watering containers for this season.
I still will use my garden patch this year. I will plant beans and peas, giant kale, giant sunflowers and maybe some more potatoes.
Part of the plot will be used for the upcoming green house. I am also planning on erecting a real fence around it. For now though, I am going to take a break.
Aww, pretty girl! If you think she's rambunctious at this age, just wait until she gets big enough to have some muscles. The best advice I can give any new puppy owner is to take some positive-reinforcement training classes and to try for a Canine Good Citizen title, even for a dog that's just a backyard dog, even if you've had dogs your whole life and you know what to do with them.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about your area, David, but in my area we're told to plant garlic in the fall and let it overwinter or it won't produce a bulb. Something about the hard frost of the winter is necessary for the bulb to grow. Otherwise it just flowers.
you know, I think I've read that about garlic also. Yet, this is the time of the year they sell the seed garlic around here, so I thought I'd give it a go.
ReplyDeleteLexie is a very smart dog. My wife will take her to doggie school in the summer. My wife is a teacher and will have time then.
You are very innovative with gardening... good luck david.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to see how your bag potatoes do. I had come up with a similar idea, but I'm going to insert my bag inside a wire cage for structure. This will be my 3rd time trying potatoes in three different ways - hopefully I'll get a harvest this year!
ReplyDeleteAlso my spring-planted garlic has done fine in the past. No really giant heads, but maybe that's just the variety.