Back in Busy-ness

Feeling better today I got back into the swing of things. Some of the things I learned are:

1. My garden is still really small.
   
2. When I laid out the beds I really had in mind lots of flowers, not rows of veggies.
   
3. The soil was really dry. REALLY dry. I think I should have wet it down before starting.
   
4. I don't do things the "normal" way.

I decided to try plant most of the veggies along the house and try get flowers along the fence where I can see them from inside. I still wanted to put the cuke's against the fence and that is when I realized there isn't a lot of room for much else. I still plan on getting some flowers in front of them. Back to the house side. Because I made the beds all curvy (visions of flowers, not veggies danced in my head) I thought convetional horizontal rows wouldn't work very well. So, I decided to go with very short rows perpedicular to the edge of the house. Looks SO crazy. I have enough seeds left over to plant the entire yard. Anyone want some carrot seeds? I only have 4 packs left... They just don't tell you on the pack HOW many seeds are in there or how far they will go!

My rows also look more like mountains and valleys than actual rows. I think I washed all the seeds away in my first watering. Luckily I have back up seeds.

So here's how she lays....

The first couple 2' mounds is where my zucchini will flourish and I will take the extra squash that I can't use to the farmers market to sell.

The next mound in front of the basement window is the watermelon I will feed the neighborhood kids with.

The four rows between the windows is the corn that will help feed the birds when Ethan forgets to refill the bird feeder above it.

Next is another watermelon patch for the kids and lastly the four rows of crisp carrots that will fatten up the neighbor's rabbit for the winter.

I still have yet to buy raspberry bushes and am excited for Sophia to pick and enjoy them.
On the other side I have those four 2' mounds for cucumbers and on the other end I planted cilantro, basil and parsley between the two lilacs. The end of the row is capped off with a peony.

I also just realized I didn't leave room for tomatoes. Not good. have to squeeze them in somewhere.

I have decided to give seeds a try this year instead of buying the starter plants. Those are SO expensive by the end of it. We will see how green my thumbs actually are. I planted some delphinium orchids behind my "herb garden" and will sprinkle seeds along the fence where the tulips and daffodils are to be in bloom when those are done.

I leave you with the final photo of my precious orchid in bloom again. (Despite the scars of past toddler battles).