Monday, September 19, 2011

Wow, I can't believe I got the garlic and winter veg all planted

Strawberry bed before

Strawberry bed after. Three rows of three types of berries. Using runners
instead of buying plants. Ahhhh...Patience.
Today was one of the fullest, most exhausting and satisfying days ever. In the bed near the property line I planted two rows of garlic. I went over to Compost Guru Jim's yesterday and he gave us a lesson in garlic planting. I planted about a half inch deep and six inches apart. I actually strung lines for the first time ever, so that the rows would be nice and straight. Jim's Red Russian bulbs he gave me to plant were the largest garlic cloves I've ever seen. Can't wait to see how it goes. I planted a row of Brussel Sprouts and a row of Cabbage to finish off that bed.
Bed with Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage and two rows of garlic.
I then dug up the Strawberries from the first garden and moved them into the new raised strawberry bed. I planted a row of my two varieties and a row of my sisters unknown type. In an empty corner I put an Italian parsley. Then I moved on to the raspberry bed. I put the raspberry dead centre. I filled the bed in with purple kale, cauliflower and Bright Lights Swiss Chard. Next...in the first bed, lasagna style, I planted a second type of cauliflower. I dug up the garlics that I had planted earlier to deter bugs. Much to my surprise, about half of the cloves were on their way to becoming really great heads of garlic. so, instead of composting them, I strung the string back up and made a nice straight row of Thrifty Foods generic garlic! I planted the new larger Rosemary, Greek Oregano and Savory in the herb border.
The newly planted Meeker Raspberry. In the bed, cauliflower, Bright Lights
Swiss Chard and Purple Kale
There is a very straight row of Cauliflower right behind the baby lettuce's and the
generic garlic that I had intended to compost are right by the carrots.

6 comments:

Cathy and Steve said...

Congratulations on getting your bed filled for the winter crops. We planted our fall peas a few weeks ago and they were coming along nicely, but the other day, I went out to cultivate and a wild bunny was having a feast. He sneaked in for a quick lunch through the picket fence where the chicken wire had pulled away.

Lucky for him and unlucky for me, our little dogs were all napping indoors or they would have chased him back into the conservation area where he lives. No autumn peas for us this season !

I am envious of your greenhouse! That is high on my wish list, although lord knows where I would put one!

Erin said...

Thank you so much. I am really proud of myself getting so much done in one day.
I am really sorry to hear about your peas. How frustrating. It never ceases to amaze me how, if you leave the tiniest opening, creatures will find it and get in.
I really love having the greenhouse. I am really lucky to have it. In my twenties I used to work for the post office. I worked Christmas overtime for most of 6-8 weeks, every day off, and bought myself the greenhouse. So that was about 30 years ago. Maybe a bit less. Wow, where did that time go!!??

Mark Willis said...

You've managed to squeeze a lot of different plants into those raised beds. I like that approach. Better to have a little of lots of things rather than lots of one or two.

Carolyn @ Carolyn's Shade Gardens said...

Wow, you really accomplished a lot. Can you come to my house?

Erin said...

Hi Carolyn.. It depends where you live. :-)
Hi Mark.. I've never in my life grown winter veggies. I thought I'd try a little bit of everything to see. 1. What grows well here. 2. What we like to eat.
A friend gave me a big bag of pears today. Lucky me.

Gardeningbren said...

Your raised beds look fantastic Erin...really got a lot planted in there and all so very neat and tidy ). Good luck on growing winter veggies...wonder if you have tried winter (cold season) greens like arugula, mache and tatsoi for instance. My Spinach is just germinating and arugula was like..overnight! Seems I saw a new book out recently on four season gardening on the West Coast.