Monday, April 08, 2013

Our Garden, part uno

So to catch you all up, last year after I got married, my husband and I moved into a new apartment in my old hometown. It was much closer to my job and appeared to be a neat little place where we could live for a year or two before deciding about buying a house, etc. And it was a neat little place. But it just wasn't the neat little place for us. It was a gorgeous old victorian home, but the setup was less than ideal for our needs.

Through a random conversation with a coworker, we found a 3-bedroom house that looked absolutely perfect for us. From our first walkthrough, we knew we were in love. So we begged mercy from our current landlord, who we had just signed a lease with, as well as our friends to help us move. Again. 3 months after they had already helped us set up shop in another home. And they graciously did.

When we first saw the overgrown fenced in backyard, we knew that we were going to immediately plant to start a garden. See, we both come from families who've had gardens growing up. And although we love supporting our local CSA's (and they are absolutely wonderful!) we wanted to really bring it even closer to home. Plus, we're both vegetarians, so if we could grow most of our own food, that was even better!

All winter, we read books and pinned garden ideas, eagerly anticipating the start of our own garden. And yes, I started a monster spreadsheet to keep track of all the ideas and planting plans. (what can I say? I'm a bit of a spreadsheet nerd)


That's only 1 page of it, my friend. I have another sheet that tracks every type of seed we've purchased and planted, another that details for each week what task needs to be done in the garden. But it's been very very helpful for keeping track of what's going on. We have 3 raised 7'x2' beds and then another large area, which I'll show you later this week. We are using the Square Foot Gardening method, which so far has worked very well for us.

As you can see from the spreadsheet, we are doing some spring garden items which we've already planted, like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and peas. And speaking of peas, check out this beauty!


Stay tuned later this week for Part II of our garden.

6 comments:

Patrick said...

Garden is looking amazing!

Special Sauce said...

You, and my Patrick need to get together. He is a SFG nerrrrrrd. This is our first year too.

Special Sauce said...

You, and my Patrick need to get together. He is a SFG nerrrrrrd. This is our first year too.

Fiber said...

Special Sauce! One of the original readers! Yep, so far, the SFG method seems to be working. If it all goes as planned, we should have one heck of a harvest. I'd love to hear updates from yours.

abbygmel said...

Love the spreadsheet. Have you read The Dirty Life? I recommend it except it is not just vegetarian.

Fiber said...

Someone just recommended The Dirty Life to me, so I have it on my Kindle wishlist. Can't wait to read it!