veggie garden in photos

Picture One, the aerial view of the most established beds:

Here we have the brassica bed and the legumes bed.

I've got cabbage, kale and broccoli in there that I started from seed in my bathroom at the beginning of March. If you check out my previous post, you'll see a before-and-after picture of these two beds. In the before picture, all these brassicas are in the 4" pots. Now they are huge! and hopefully ready to produce soon.

The legumes bed contains several varieties of peas: shelling peas, snap peas and snow peas. There are also some bush beans (green and yellow wax), and some edamame - first year trying those, so we'll see how they do. I still need to do a second sowing of one (of three!) variety of shelling peas, as well as some pole beans.

Both beds are also home to lettuce and spinach and swiss chard, planted willy-nilly, wherever space allows. I also planted radishes at the same time as the peas - great as row markers, 'cause they come up so fast - but they're mostly done, due to the unseasonable heat the last few weeks.

Beyond the two beds you can see the space for the last bed in the original veggie garden, which is yet to be built or dug or sifted. The soil is actually quite compacted for now, but soon we will have carrots and beets and onions and leeks in there.

Where you see the 1"x1" will mark out the path, wide enough for a wheelbarrow. This bed is actually going to be divided up into two triangles. Should be cool when it's done :)

Picture Two, the aerial view of the edge of the established, center beds, and the yet-to-be-completed pepper and corn bed:

The edge of this bed is also on a diagonal, again for ease of walking/barrowing. We've decided that the two center beds are a bit big. That is, the path between the boxes and the neighbour's fence is too narrow - not quite shoulder-width. Next year we will move the beds back a few inches.

Picture Three, another aerial view - the new tomato bed with wee plants and the soaker hose that will be buried as the tomatoes grow and get top-dressed, and the corner of the yet-to-be-completed pepper and corn bed:

You can see the wee marigolds along the edge of the box. More will be planted into the tomato bed once they are top-dressed. We plan to go up almost to the top of the box, by pinching off the lower leaves of the tomatoes and burying their stems. Marigolds and tomatoes love each other. We are organic gardeners, and try to do as much companion-planting as we can manage/remember.

Picture Four, the new beds - tomato bed completed, nurse bed half-built and not yet dug up or sifted:

We've talked about some kind of temporary (as we are renters, and will eventually move) greenhouse structure here for a few years. We could use these two boxes as the base, and erect a poly-covered frame over top. Voila! Temporary greenhouse! (okay, maybe next year?) Of course, we'll have to move that comfrey plant, but for this year, we plan to just hack it down whenever it overhangs the tomatoes too much - the leaves will them be used as a high-nitrogen fertilizer - comfrey tea!

Picture Five, the other side of the garden:


Most of these beds are new. The strawberries were in the main veggie garden last year, but were moved to this expanded perennial bed in May. Behind the strawberries are a couple of sad roses, a burning bush and a few ground covers - the original plants in this bed. We also planted some horseradish in here. This is a bad picture, taken through my living-room window. Those are not rocks on my lawn, but sun spots on the glass.

There are wee squashes coming up from seed in the other two beds and a sprinkler hose running through it all. We like automatic watering systems, and are working on our own jury-rigged system. However, timers are expensive, so it's not yet automatic.

We also planted raspberries and two blueberry plants this year. We planned for rhubarb and asparagus, but I couldn't find any asparagus roots in any of the 5 nurseries I visited in late April/early May. I figured I was too late, so that will have to wait for next year (once again - I've wanted an asparagus bed for YEARS, especially considering they take 2 to 3 years to get established).