Garden Update

A quick garden update. I have been busy getting everything planted. Also a tutorial on how to build a wooden tomato cage.

For a lot of the country, it has been warm enough to plant your garden already. For those of us in Zone 5/6, we are just now getting our garden in. I had started seeds in the greenhouse a while back. After hardening the seedlings off, they were ready to plant this weekend. Memorial day weekend is our “it’s ok to plant now” time.

Before planting, I covered the entire garden with plastic. I did not what another disaster year like I had last year. I also planted peas and broccoli about a month ago. Carrots were in the plans, but I forgot to get them in and then realized I didn’t space things out correctly and that row needed to be something else. So I will have carrot seeds for next year.

This past weekend, The Hardworking Husband and I put up the tomato cages. Last year I decided it would be less expensive and more sturdy to use wood for my cages than the thin metal ones that I seem to have trouble keeping upright once my plants get big. I found something similar online and we built it. Each post in one row is 24″ apart and then I start the next row 12″ from the end of the other row and then each of those are 24″ apart. (I hope that makes sense.) So the posts are staggered. The rows are 24″ are apart as well. Then I put cross pieces to create a “V.” And I plant the tomato on the inside of the point.

As the plant grows I use old t-shirts that I cut up to tie them to the cross piece or post. It did a great job last year. At the end of the season, I pulled it all out of the ground and reused everything this year except I will use new strips of fabric to tie the plants up.

I also planted cabbage and peppers. I was a muddy mess after I was done. We have gotten so much rain in the last couple of weeks. We had a couple mornings that were sunny and nice and I quickly got everything in before the downpours in the afternoon. Next weekend I will be planting watermelon and winter squash.

My next project is to finally get the grass planted. We have had dead grass for far too long. The amount of projects we have this spring/summer is causing grass to be put on the back burner. But we must have grass for Little Thing to play in. She loves to go outside.

After the grass is planted, I will be planting the rest of the garden. All of these plants I am planting seeds directly in the ground. And they all need to be planted 2 weeks after the last average frost. These include summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and corn.

And then the pallet gardens will be planted. I am moving the strawberries to one of those. The other two will have lettuce (3 different kinds), spinach, basil, and rosemary.

What have you or are you going to plant this year? Have you ever planted a pallet garden? This is my first time to plant one.