Dreaming of Sunshine

Ugh. This weather lately makes me want to curl up on the couch and eat cheese non-stop. Grey skies, temperatures warm enough to melt the top layer of snow into dirty mush, and on top of that, Henry has been gone 8 of the last 9 nights, so I'm single-parenting it. Ugh, ugh, ugh!

So, to make me think of happier times, we are going to discuss my garden, or at least the garden I have planned.

I've wanted to have some plants here at the house for a while. Last year, I had a few tomato plants mixed in with my flowers, but it was an awful year for tomatoes. I think I got about 5 fruits from 4 plants. This year, I'm going to try for quite a bit more, and I'm using the square foot gardening method by Mel Bartholomew.


Because we have a raised septic bed, hideous soil (It's all backfill and small rocks), and LOTS of manure, I'm going to do 3 raised beds that measure 4'x4', which gives me 48 squares. I also wanted to attempt companion planting to make my garden as productive as possible. It was a bit of a nightmare figuring out how to organize it, so I turned it into a craft project.

I wrote out what I wanted to plant and how many squares I would need for it. Then I cut out the squares and sorted them into piles of what vegetables like to be with each other. Then I arranged them into 3 larger squares that would be my raised beds. For example, each tomato plant gets its own square, so I cut out 6 tomato squares. On the other hand, 12 bean plants fit into one square, so I only cut out 2 squares. It ended up looking something like this (apologies for the HORRIBLE formatting. Anyone have any idea how to create boxes in html?):

Box 1

Cornell’s Bush Delicata squash (1)	Cornell’s Bush Delicata squash (1)	Tomato (1)	Tomato (1)
Zucchini and marigolds (1)	Zucchini and marigolds (1)	Zucchini and marigolds (1)	Zucchini and marigolds (1)
Jacob’s Cattle beans – drying (12)	Jacob’s Cattle beans – drying (12)	Purple beans (can’t remember name) (12)	Purple beans (can’t remember name) (12)
Strawberries with marigolds (2)	Strawberries with marigolds (2)	Strawberries with marigolds (2)	Strawberries with marigolds (2)

Box 2

Snow pea (1) with vining petunia	Snow pea (1) with vining petunia	Sugar pea (1) with vining petunia	Sugar pea (1) with vining petunia
Carrots (12)	Brussel sprouts (1) with nasturtiums	Brussel sprouts (1) with nasturtiums	dill
Purple bunching onions (12)	Brussel sprouts (1) with nasturtiums	Brussel sprouts (1) with nasturtiums	Large leaf basil & garlic in fall
Carrots (12)	Genovese basil	Genovese basil	Large leaf basil & garlic in fall

Box 3

Tomato (1)	Tomato (1)	Tomato (1)	Tomato (1)
Sweet pepper (1)	Sweet pepper (1)	Fish pepper – hot (1)	Fish pepper – hot (1)
Spinach - succession planting	Swiss chard – succession planting	Strawberries with marigolds (2)	Strawberries with marigolds (2)
Strawberries with marigolds (2)	Strawberries with marigolds (2)	Strawberries with marigolds (2)	Strawberries with marigolds (2)

I'll be growing everything but the tomatoes and strawberries from seed. (I ordered from William Dam and Terra Edibles). The tomatoes I'll buy from a neighbour and the strawberries I ordered in a fit of foolishness from Veseys because they were 25 plants for only $10 (never mind the amount of room they need. Yeesh).

If you're actually interested in the specific names, let me know, and I can look them up. I'm being lazy right now and don't want to get off the couch because, did I mention, the weather STINKS!!!! Now, pass the cheese.