Imagine if you will a small plot 20 feet long and 4 feet wide. This is our garden, 80 square feet of herbs and veggies. Sounds tight, you might say. But, it's manageable. After all K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple, Stupid. That and with it right next to our hang out, our patio, and we can see it from the den, so it's always in our face. Weeding is something that just happens as we gaze. Seeing insects that may harm, or admire the beneficials as they pollinate, it's working smarter, not harder.
I already had corn in the ground, surrounded by squash, aka: zucchini. Just down from them are the peppers. I still needed room for okra, more squash and who knows what. I was wishing I had made better plans. I gave the peppers about 12 square feet. Each is planted in a tray.
A few years ago I had found these trays for tomatoes and thought they were pretty cool:
Automator Tomato Tray. Check it out, they now come in red. It was my success with these trays that prompted me to try to recreate the effect with black mulch cloth for my tomatoes in pots. Maybe next year I will get some red mulch cloth, or square pots.
I had some corn left in peat pots, so I added a bit of space with a mound next to the corn bed. I could compare methods. I put squash in around the mound and beans on top. Sadly those stalks have come up short, so I will need to trellis the beans.
As the zucchini came up, all of them, I began to move them around the garden. I have since learned not to plant the whole packet. I didn't loose a single transplant, either. So much for not being able to transplant squash. I just think it's important to only do it when it still very young and the root is not so deep, a seedling in other words. Now my whole garden is surrounded by squash.
Add to the "plan" my impromptu decision to add yellow straight neck squash resistant to bugs (I couldn't resist). So we added yet another mound by the corn bed. I planted a squash for each row and would run the vines down under the corn. By the way, that's not going so well. It seems that these squash are also more bush like. I swear that's not what it said on the seed packet!
I bought only three plants this year, the two jalapenos and thai hot peppers. I had a couple trays for them, too, and put them just below the bells. O yea, I had also bought a couple marigolds and stuck them around the peppers, too. Flowers are always a nice touch.
That left me a 4 by 7 space for the okra. I put in about 13. The squash have gotten so big, that one of the okra is a bit shaded. It doesn't seem to mind, too much. Okra are pretty adaptable I am told.
That last bit of space is the herb garden and it is full. I saved a couple of basil plants that were near death and youngest girl had started some sun flowers of her own, that was about all I could squeeze in there. The potatoes were in their own bed above the rest surrounded by concrete blocks. I had decided to fill the holes of the blocks with soil and put in my edible seed sun flowers.
That was it. Every time I would see a plant, or seed packet I would dream and think and desire to plant it. But, alas, I can not. I have taken up all my space at hand, for the moment. While this sounds like a plan, it was hap-hazard. I thought about what I was doing, while I was doing it. I tried to match things up OK, but really, I got lucky. For my fall garden, I have already start to plot and plan. Maybe it will be a little less hap-hazard. However, if my life continues the way it always does, it may not and I will plan as I go along. It hasn't been such a bad plan, after all.
Later taters!
A look at the garden from the top, we are looking at the corn in front.
The tomatoes in pots, just starting to really grow. I began to cage them about this time.
The sweet peppers are getting water and starting to grow, finally!
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