In the past I’ve had pretty good luck with container gardens. Last summer we used a few of the old raised beds on a family members’ property and experimented with the square foot gardening method. We filled two 4×8 beds 6 inches deep with Mel’s Mix, marked our squares with string, and I came up with a garden plan even starting seeds indoors at the beginning of February.
Unfortunately besides producing some salad greens and cherry tomatoes it was a bust. Some of our starters were stunted by a late cold snap. As the oak trees filled in with their summer growth it really cut down on the amount of sunlight hitting the garden.
So this year we knew we wanted to start again in the sunniest area we could on our new property!
This Year’s Garden
This summer we cleared enough room on our property to have 3 raised bed gardens. Two are roughly 4 feet by 8 feet and filled with at least 8 inches of soil. The third is 4 feet by 4 feet filled with a foot of soil for root vegetables.
In addition to the raised beds, my husband began a potato tower, rotating layers of straw with a little bit of soil around potato slips. We also have our strawberry buckets from last year still growing in the garden.
I started salad greens in the spring with a couple of homemade greenhouse totes. That was a fail this year. I was a little late getting those going and with our unseasonably warm May and June, they’ve already bolted. Luckily we get tons of salad greens and mixes from our farm box subscription that started in June so we’re well stocked.
My personal favorite addition to our garden this summer are the railing planter boxes my husband built for our deck. I have four of them filled with herbs and flowers. There will be room for two more when we extend the deck in the future. The bursts of color and scents bring me so much joy!
What We’re Growing in the Garden This Summer:
Vegetables:
- beets
- butternut squash
- carrots
- cucumber
- parsnips
- peppers (transplants: Aura Bell, Ca Wonder Bell, Early Jalapeno, Habanero)
- potatoes
- pumpkin
- tomatoes (transplants: Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Orange Currant, Pruden’s Purple, Sungold Cherry, Umberto)
- strawberries
- yellow crookneck squash
- zucchini
Herbs:
- basil
- basil greek (from seed)
- chamomile
- chives
- cilantro
- dill
- lavender
- lemon balm
- mint
- oregano
- parsley (from seed)
- rosemary
- thyme
Flowers:
- dahlias (from seed)
- hollyhock
- impatiens
- marigolds
- snapdragons
- sunflowers dwarf (from seed)
- zinnias
Troubleshooting and New Strategies in the Raised Bed Garden Area:
One of our raised beds contains the Mel’s Mix we moved over from the old garden area. For everything else we using a vegetable blend we bought by the truck load from a local landscape material business. The second option is definitely the cheaper way to go and you don’t have to mix it yourself. We’ll see if there’s a production difference.
Our early indoor seedlings didn’t pan out again this year. I started a lot fewer types of vegetables than last year wanting to focus on growing a few successfully rather than having 25+ different types. The tomato and jalapeno seedlings did the best but they still weren’t very big when it was time to plant.
We bought a few vegetable transplants from a local plant sale and our favorite farm stand for insurance. Those are all doing great and are our largest plants already. Since I just had to thin an additional random 10 tomato plants out of the garden bed, I may have underestimated the resilience of our original seedlings. I have no idea where else those would have come from.
My buckets of strawberry plants made it though their first winter and are doing well in their new sunny location. They did not produce a ton but it was a bit more than last year. I added two additional strawberry plants from a local plant sale that seem to love the raised beds.
We are also mulching with wood chips this year. It’s a material that we have tons of from working on the property. So far I’ve noticed a difference with not needing to water as often and it seems to help keep some weeds from popping up.
I planted all my squash in one bed which might wind up being an issue later on. I was trying to plan so they’d have more room than last year and not encroach on other vegetables. Apparently they can cross pollinate so it will be interesting to see how that turns out.
Flowers and Herb Boxes
This summer I planted more flowers in my vegetable beds as well as my herb boxes. I always have marigolds growing in the garden but this year I included snapdragons and several different types of zinnias. There is a hollyhock from a local plant sale too that seems happy in the raised bed. My dahlias and dwarf sunflowers are growing from seed and doing well so far.
Most of my herbs came as starters from a large independent nursery. I tried to propagate a few from various family members’ yards without results. I’m growing parsley and greek basil from seed and attempting to keep a rotation of cilantro going.
Future Plans and Ideas
Next year I hope to start the salad greenhouse totes much earlier. It’s an easy and fun way to have baby greens through the winter and spring if you remember to set it up. I wish to take full advantage of our mild winter climate.
I want to learn more about propagating herbs and flowers from already established plants. It seems like it would be relatively easy but I haven’t had much luck with getting mint or lemon balm going from my late grandma’s garden. I also attempted it from clippings of my mom’s lavender and rosemary. My dad has hollyhocks too I’d like to bring over from his yard in the future.
We are working on planning and preparing an orchard. Our American Guinea Hogs are doing a great job foraging and clearing their area as we move them around. I hope to make sure we follow through this year so we can get fruit trees planted during the late winter or early spring months. We would also love to incorporate blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and more strawberry plants – maybe an entire raised bed of strawberries!
What are you growing in the garden this summer? Do you have any tips on propagating plants?
