Lawns Look Much Better as Gardens


A few of the squash plants. Lookin' good

When we first moved to Tennessee in March one of our top priorities was to get a little garden going. The quickest and easiest way at that time was to set up a few square-foot garden plots around the house. We didn't have any clue where to start with a "real" garden of the scale that we ultimately envisioned. Thus, our six square-foot gardens plots worked out well and produced a significant amount of our veggies and herbs for the past 4-5 months. Sweetbreads and her Mom did a great job companion planting and getting it all up and running.

However, I was itching to tear up the lawn and plant a bigger garden. One with rows and that was capable of providing all of our vegetable needs for an extended period of time. It will take a few years to reach that goal, but I think we made a good start.

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Prepping Our Square Foot Garden Site

This past weekend we took our first steps toward getting the garden ready. The first goal was to designate a location and determine which style of gardening we would opt for (we chose Square Foot gardening for the first attempt). This afternoon I posted a bit about the preparation process on my weekly update at Farm Dreams (see the excerpt below and continue reading at the FD site).

Before and After Patio/Garden Area

This weekend we got busy laying out the garden for the two of us. We are planting ~50% more than we think we will need so that one of two things happens. Either 1.) We get too much for us, and our neighbors, friends and animals get the extras, or 2.) We still don't get enough and we sadly head back to the grocery store for food like we're doing now.

What's our plan for the garden? For our first attempt at gardening we're planning a series of square foot gardens that surround a patio that we unearthed over the weekend. When we first moved to the farm there was a big area covered in gravel with a small fire pit in the middle (see photo above). Mounds of sod encroached from the yard on the periphery. We never really paid attention to that area, to be honest. It was outside of the fenced patio and kind of in no man's land. I just figured we'd dig out the gravel one day when we had some time and grass would grow back. Eventually it would just look like the rest of the yard.  But last week Sweetbreads started digging up the gravel and low and behold there's a big concrete pad underneath. 

Continue Reading at Farm Dreams

Companion Planting - Cultivate Some Leafy Love

It seems that in almost every farmer's book or blog there's a good page or two devoted to waxing romantic about getting cosy with their favorite seed catalogs during the downtime of the winter months. Late this fall, I eagerly awaited the arrival of the three that I had signed up for, ready to join the club and experience this supposedly blissful experience first hand. Sadly, after weeks of waiting it appeared that they would not be coming (maybe because our current address is a P.O. box?). Luckily the three companies that we had wanted to buy from also have online catalogs. For the past few nights we've been getting cozy...with the laptop. Although slightly less romantic, it does the trick! We started with bush beans for drying and within moments I was hooked. Transported from our tiny bedroom in Brooklyn to our farm in early summer, we imagined our first full blown garden as we planned what it would hopefully bear.  I have a feeling that in our excitement we may have gone a teensy bit overboard. We tried to stay on the conservative side but also let ourselves play a bit with variety (as in: we eat lots of carrots so we went with an early season variety as well as the fun rainbow variety I couldn't resist for later in the season). 

While snuggled in bed oogling golden beets I realized that I needed to get a move on, step up the studying, and learn how to actually grow these beauties! I've done pole beans and greens in a little yard we had at one apartment several years ago, but that's about the extent of my experience. I've got a lot of learning to do and although most of it is going to happen with my hands in the dirt this spring, I'm trying to get as much in as I can now. 

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