So stuff is already sprouting in my square foot garden. I’m so excited!!!

Take a peek…

Top: OK, that’s NOT really in my raised beds.  That’s our peach tree. Isn’t it beautiful?

Bottom (left to right): radish sprouts, pea shoots and then one of the lettuces (I already don’t remember which one).

It just rained here which is awesome because my irrigation system for the beds is still not set up. Those little sprouts would be all dried out already I’m sure if Mother Nature had not intervened. Thanks Momma Nature!

I’m hoping the tomato and pepper seeds I threw in will take. That’s the BIG question right now… Odds are that I will have to buy seedlings and transplant them.  I’m just hoping that the farm down the street has their sale soon and that I will be in town for it. I hear their organic heirlooms are amazing and I’ve never been able to score any.  Fingers crossed for either some sprouts of my own or maybe a score at their sale!

What’s growing in your garden?

The post Garden Update: It’s Sprouting! appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.

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.

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.

The post How Does Your Garden Grow? My 2013 Garden Plans appeared first on Periwinkle Papillon.

This past Fourth of July, I snapped some quick photos of some of the things that are making me smile in my garden right now.

The intense summer heat is coming here for us so these lovelies will be dried out soon. It also gave me a good excuse to play around with getting a slideshow to work on my blog (see below).

If you want to see the pictures in full screen just click on FS on the bottom right.

So what do you think?

[flagallery gid=1 w=600 h=100% name=My Backyard ]

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