Garden

Ooo that is so exciting! I can't wait.

Still, no one has told me what to do! So I'm just going to start with my potted herb plants for the inside! I'll read over the winter and dig up the spot for the spring.

 

Try the virginia tech farming website. I'm too lazy to look it up for you right now but they have made a list of when to plant each type crop.
I think beans would be ok right now. your kids would love that. just plant the bush variety and get them to pick em for ya and for some reason kids love to snap em too.

 

Thanks. I'll do that. My kids love to help do EVERYTHING and they are fantastic healthy eaters so they'd love the veggies.

 

Gracias.

I think and hope you're right. Some of them are big and green, have been that way for about two weeks (well, one has some faint pink on it).

 

Have you heard of IN the Garden with Andre Viette? He's on the radio on saturday mornings here, not sure if you guys get him. I heard that about the maters on his show.

 

make sure you get a type that doesn't have to be strung. I know Blue lakes don't have to be and they are mighty tasty.

It's funny...I took a huge grocery bags full of beans to my grandma's for her to fix for a cookout and EVERYONE wanted to help snap em. It's like it brought up old memories or something. And the kids got a kick out of it.

 

My ideas:

First of all, I have several huge informative books about beds, rotating plants, layer gardening etc.... if you wanna borrow them.

If I were you guys, I would outline your shady spots right now. Ground paint the shade so you'll know in the spring where the leaves are gonna be. There's a good thick coverage now, so it's a good time.
Then decide where you want your veggie garden first. If I were you, I would try to position it near the back row of trees, keeping in mind the sun and shade of course. Have Ace dig up the grass with a sod remover or however he wants to do it in a rectangular shape. I say rectangular because that's how all gardens are shaped- I don't know why. Throw down something to make the ground break up, I forget..maybe lime? Then lay something over that area until the spring. It isn't pretty, but it will reward you with good rich dirt. Ie... newspaper or something to kill everything under it. Sometime around Jan/Feb uncover it, til it and add some compost, cover it again.

Now for your flower beds... you have to decide now if you are going to build a pool someday. Ok you don't HAVE to, but it's gonna save you a lot of work.

Start with ornamental trees and decide what you want, you only need a couple, but you'll want a couple of shaded spots more near the house later on. You need a couple of crape myrtles beds as well. Start small, do one bed at a time, don't try to do it all at one time, or you''ll spend lots of money and it will be too hard to keep up all coming in at one time.
Think about where you might want the kids to have a swing set ( I say off to the left near the back).... and work around the big items first.
It will soon be time to plant some bulbs in your exisiting beds and in the first bed of the season. I would work at doing one bed in spring then one in fall etc- that's 3 beds in a years time and that's plenty... Becasue if you have a veggie garden, you're gonna have enough work to do. You have time, you have plenty of space... take it slow and love each one along so in time, they will all be beautiful.
Thnk about structures you might want... you want an area for a fire pit/rock patio type thing? I say that needs to go to the right off the deck if you are standing facing the yard.... because someday if you build a pool, that would tie in to the landscaping for that.
I think you can use a cad program to do an ariel schematic of the yard.... maybe draw things out first and really really think on it.
I know you want it and you want it now, but if you'll plan accordingly, it will save you tons of work.

 

Plu- I've seen some amazing round gardens. Someday I'm going to plant one. They plant taller things like pole beans in the center and work out from there. I have an article with a diagram in an older (from the 70's) Country Living magazine that shows what plants do well next to each other. It's in a box in my basement... I also have an article about fall gardens. Maybe I should dig them out Supposedly a round garden saves space?

 

I've got a round rock garden.

 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to do an "arch" shaped garden and then a small row garden in front of that. Arch so the kids and I can get to everything without a problem.