Like everyone, I have grown tomatoes and tried cucumbers and green beans but this year, after not having a garden for a few (due to a Dachshund named Willy who loves to eat things, all things) we decided to get serious. We are also trying to cut down on our purchasing of foods from far away and heck, this is as close as it gets! So I asked my husband for an 8x12 foot raised bed. It's too small, you're going to want it bigger, he said. We got the wood (cedar, "it's got to last" he said), we got the soil (triple mix since we're on sand and needed fresh stuff), we got the plants, he built this garden, lined it with weed fabric to keep our triple mix in place, build elaborate lift away sides so that it is bunny, gopher and weiner dog proof and we were off to a fine start. Of course, being fairly new at this I packed everything in a bit too close (you look at those tiny seedlings and forget how big one tomato plant gets! especially after all the rain the Southern Ontario region has been getting)but even stil it looked sparse compared to this photo, taken about late June. Two weeks later, still growing: And the first meal of all veggies from the garden was tonight and included these beauties! We're thrilled with it's progress and since we had extra soil and a bit more ambition we put some things that the bunny will hopefully leave alone into a separate bed, not so raised and not so fancy and it is full too! Lesson #1 Always leave the recommended amount of space between rows! Someone has recommended it for a good reason....
great looking garden. Your produce is looking good too. how are your tomatoes? May I ask on what end do you have your garden gate?
It looks like you are having a fine harvest, and the raised bed is a done beautifully,, well done! I bet you can't wait until the second and third and so on meals to come,,,lol. Isn't growing your own always so much more tastier. I think so.
I like gardening very much. Pictures posted here are very beautiful. The garden must green from all sides. _______________ Petric Rodger
That garden looks supurb! I always LURVE seeing a sucessful garden. There are just no words for the feeling that one gets when you harvest and eat the first produce from your OWN garden, it there? Your veg looks perfect. I'll bet they were good to eat as well. Ach, don't worry about the spacing thing--you'll get it right next year. Besides, you can haredly call your fiorst harvest a failure, eh? Well done, you! (Keep up the good work and more pics, please, as things progress) Good fencing--hats off to the ole man.
Looks fabulous for your first serious garden! The harvest looks very yummy! Congrats on a job well done.
Gee I wish my first attempt at veggie growing had been half as good as yours Jill. I like the way you've incorporated a path running down the middle of your veggies too - so much easier to pick everything that way. Your garden is a real credit to you and your husband. :-D
Your raised bed looks great, hubby did a fantastic job on it. What all do you have planted in it and what did you plant in the second bed? Your plants all look very healthy and your harvest looks delicious...except for the beets, I don't care for beets, but my husband does so I guess I will try some next year.
veggies We have beets, carrots, green peppers (5 plants), brussells sprouts (4), snap peas (2 small rows, about 16 plants, next year I'll do twice that amount), snow peas (an 8 foot row of them spaced about 6 inches, good harvest from them so far and many more blooms to come), 2 grape tomatoes (red), 2 regular tomatoes (can't remember the strain) and 7 green bean bush plants. The second "overflow" garden has 4 more tomato plants, our older raspberries, 5 enormous zucchini plants (yikes! Harrowsmith said something funny in their top 100 reasons to live in the country...."You can pass off your oversized zucchini to unknowing city folk who drop by and want some of your garden produce".) with at least 20 blooms each. That's it! The secret this year must be the soil and we've had sooo much rain. Today is sunny finally and I'm really hoping some of the grape tomatoes will ripen up soon.
It doesn't look like you packed your plants too closely at all... to me at least. I'll post pictures of my raised garden (which is much smaller) later on. Mine is packed way too closely, but the plants seem to be doing well despite my lack of gardening experience.
Thursday's harvest Here is what I picked today. In Ontario the beans are starting to be full size, the snow peas are still producing and the cherry tomatoes just started.
