Gardening Time Again

It’s gardening time again, or at least time to get started.  Last weekend, we tilled the garden.  I was ready to bury the disaster of the weedfest of last year.  This year we are trying different things. I was so disappointed with the failure last year.  This year I am determined to not let that happen again. 

As I thought about what I wanted for my yard and garden, I realized I didn’t like my grass at all and wanted to do something about that too.  I have a friend that owns a sod farm.  I asked him to come take a look.  He advised me to kill it all.  So another friend came over in September and killed all of our grass.  I have had brown dead grass since then.  We will be reseeding at the end of this month. It will be good to have the yard just like I want it.  And I want a beautiful inviting yard that we can have people over and enjoy the beautiful Idaho summers.

I am no landscaper so I am just going with what I think.  The first thing on my list after grass is trees and bushes.  I am super picky about trees so I will only be planting quaking aspens.  I talked with the guys that cut trees around the power lines and they said aspens are power line friends.  And since with have some running across the back of our yard I want to keep that in mind.  I also would like to plan lilacs to provide some privacy from the neighbors behind us.  We don’t have alleys in our part of town and so our back yard butts right up to theirs.  The shed in their yard isn’t the prettiest and I’d rather not see that every time I’m in the backyard.  I am also going to make a flower bed along the fence on the side of the yard.  And take out the rhubarb. (I know, good luck)

Along our patio we have dirt patches that may have once been flower beds.  I am going to put galvanized water troughs there to use as flower/herb beds like the picture below. I want something up off the ground so the kids don’t walk in the beds.  

And lastly the garden.  I have a good plan (I hope) for this year.  First till it and get rid of all the evidence of last year.  And we’ve done that.  It’s nice to have friends with a tractor so we can make that happen in about 10 minutes.  

Second, cover the entire thing in landscaping fabric.  I wish that could happen in 10 minutes too.  But our garden is 50 x 28.  So it’s going to take a good deal of fabric and time.  I will be using the same irrigation system I used last year.  It makes for easy watering.  If you don’t remember what we built last year, it is a PVC pipe the length of the garden with valves every so often so that we can turn rows off if we need to.  And off of each valve we have soaker hoses.  Each soaker hose waters 3 rows.  The system is connected to our sprinkler system so I can have it water regularly for a certain length of time without having to think about it everyday. 

Below is my plan for planting.  After reading more this spring, I realize one of the things I did wrong last year was planting my bell peppers next to my chili peppers.  This year the bell peppers will be by the tomatoes.  And I’m adding a few things like corn and watermelon.  And I’m moving the herbs and lettuces to the patio.  This will give me more room for other things in the garden and make it easier to harvest them when I need them for dinner.  

I am a little behind on starting seeds.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to order them or wait until I went to Denver to get them.  I took so long to decide that at this point them I will get them in the same amount of time because I have a trip to Denver planned for next week.  The nursery that I like to visit there carries the seeds I like to buy.  If you are looking for non-GMO seeds, I highly recommend Botanical Interests.  They have reasonably priced and great quality seeds.  And if you spend over $60 before the end of March, you get free standard shipping.  I was able to get free shipping last year, but I have a lot of seeds left over because I bought so many. 

I am excited about all the plans we have for our backyard. We are beginning next with having a shed built to house The Hardworking Husband’s parts for his work.  It will be so nice to have the garage for projects for me.  I already have some furniture I want to paint and I want to learn to make things from pallets.

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