How Does Your Garden Grow? My 2013 Garden Plans

by Sara Mooradian on March 18, 2013

Square_Foot_Gardening_Plans_Raised_beds

Measured, planted and ready to grow!   My little gardener helper photo bombing as well.

After a year looooong hiatus, I’m getting my hands dirty again. This time in the garden and it feels so gooooood.

Last weekend, I turned the soil in my raised garden beds and then set out to try square foot gardening.  I measured, plotted and then planted.

raised garden beds

Square foot gardening plan for my 2013 raised beds in Northern California.

Well, the kids did the planting and because of that I’m not entirely confident that the seeds ended up where they should and if anything is going to grow at all.   I guess time will tell.  The worst part is, I’m horribly impatient and gardening apparently requires an abundance of patience. I’ll have to admit that I checked the beds within 15 minutes of planting the seeds to see if anything had “changed.”  Not sure what I was hoping for… It will be at least a week before we can see anything if  the radishes will sprout.

So what are we going to try to grow?

Well… here’s what we put in our plotted raised beds:

  1. Pumpkins, 2 varieties:  Connecticut Field & Big Max
  2. Tomatoes, 2 varieites: Heirloom Marvel Stripe and Brandywine
  3. Peppers Mix.
  4. Spinach: Baby Leaf Catalina
  5. Lettuce 3 types: Little Gems, Romaine Parris Island, and Buttercrunch.
  6. Oregon Sugar Peas II.
  7. Radish: Cherry Belle
  8. Beets, 2 varieties: Gourmet Blend and Heirloom Golden.
  9. Carrots: French Bolero.

There’s an artichoke plant already in one bed that refuses to go away (you can see it in the photo above) so I’m going to give it one more year.  I haven’t had great yields from it in the past and it seems to attract ants.  But it’s pretty hardy and that’s good news for me so I’ll keep it around.

I have high hopes for this year’s garden but again admit that I really don’t know what I’m doing.  I’ve had a good crop the first 2 years that we planted and then a so-so year and then I took a break.  I’m optimistic and have two little gardener helpers this year that are pretty into it.  Hopefully they will remind me to water when I’m supposed to.

Stay tuned… I plan on blogging about this. A lot.