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Our 2015 Backyard Produce Garden

Notes about our backyard gardening.

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Apr 11

On Sat, Apr 11, 2015, I cleaned out our garden. It was loaded with oak leaves that fell in the garden, along with a lot of leaves that I raked onto the garden. Other debris, containers, and firewood needed removed.

I worked the soil with a small shovel, smoothed it with a rake, and worked it again with the shovel. I removed roots.

When I removed the thick layer of leaves, I found two sorrel plants that were growing. Small leaves, about 2 to 3 inches long, grew on each plant. One plant grew in the west bed, and the other grew in the middle bed.

A couple strawberry plants seemed to be okay, but I'll probably remove them.

Apr 13

On Mon, Apr 13, I worked the soil again with the shovel and smoothed it with a rake.

Then I mended the fencing. In some areas, the screening had broken free from the chicken wire, so I reattached the screening. Some of the chicken wire bent and leaned into the garden because of the piled snow this past winter. I used wooden stakes to hold back the fencing in the east bed.

Then I planted five rows of lettuce, five rows of carrots, and five rows of arugula. All from seeds that we bought last September at the Country Living Festival in Columbus. The seeds overwintered in plastic containers, located in the garage.

My Apr 13 plantings filled the east and middle beds. I have no idea if these seeds will perform. Good test.

I needed to do all of this about two weeks ago, planting at the end of March or the first couple days of April. I missed the good rain last week and now the warmup over the past few days.

Shortly after planting, a brief rain shower moved through. We may receive some additional light rain late today, Apr 13.

Photo taken after planting on Apr 13, 2015. The little ditch lines marked the boundaries of the rows. The planting occurred between these lines.

The garden area back in Feb 2015.

Late March 2015 with the final pile of snow on the flower bed.

Possible Planting Plan

I'll keep it simple this year by planting:

  • sorrel
  • lettuce
  • carrots
  • tomatoes
  • green beans
  • peppers

I'll use the four containers to grow tomatoes again. I might plant six tomato plants in the garden. Then 6 rows or approx 24 squares will be devoted to beans and peppers.

May 2

I bought lettuce and pepper plants at the Toledo farmers market, and I bought pepper, tomato, and strawberry plants at Titgemier's.

I planted everything on Sat afternoon, May 2. The four tomato plants went into the containers. Everything else got planted in the western bed. The other two beds contain the seeds planted above, which are doing very little, and I'll probably add plants to those beds.

For the seed rows, the carrots sprouted a week after planting. The lettuce and arugula sprouted later. The chilly weather over the last half of April probably slowed things. If little progress occurs with this week after the week-long stretch of 70s and some 80s, plus watering and rain, then I'll plant something else this weekend.

If I replace the seed rows, I'll plant:

  • bean seeds
  • carrot plants
  • pepper plants
  • maybe more lettuce and tomato plants

May 11

On Sat, May 9, I bought four tomato plants, two pepper plants, and three packets of green bean seeds from Titgemier's.

On May 11, I planted the tomatoes and peppers in the garden. I planted the bean seeds from one packet in the garden.

To make some room, I removed the carrots that had grown very little from seed. And I removed some greens that also had grown very little from seeds.

Some lettuce or arugula seeds have grown decent, and those rows, approx four, remain. If these continue to grow, I'll leave them.

I would like to plant more bean seeds, pepper plants, and lettuce plants if room exists. I have some room left in one garden bed.

May 18

I harvested some lettuce from the plants that I bought at the farmers market, and I harvested some sorrel that overwintered. I created small salads for DD and me that included some fresh squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt, and parm cheese. Tasty.

Sat, May 23

harvested lettuce and arugula that grew from seeds planted in early April.

Tue, May 26

harvested more lettuce and arugula.

Sat, May 30.

another harvest of lettuce and arugula, biggest haul yet. need to eat one or two small salads a day now. nice.

Wed, Jun 3

I picked a lot of arugula and some lettuce.

Plus sorrel. I've always picked some sorrel on each of the harvest days mentioned above. That plant produces well. We have two plants that were planted last year.

Tue, Jun 9

Today, I harvested a lot of lettuce from the garden and a little sorrel.

The arugula has been flowering this week. I've been snipping off the flowers. I need to pick more arugula.

A few small, green tomatoes have formed on the plants, growing in the containers.

The green beans are growing well. These grew from seeds planted some weeks back.

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By JR - 893 words
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