I know, it's unlikely anyone will sit in the shade of my carrots, but I thought that quote above was nice and is closely related to gardening in general of course so...There it is.
Over the last couple of weeks I've been getting my vegetable garden beds up and running. You can see a couple posts on it here, part one and part two if you're at all interested. It's been enjoyable to roll out the process and whilst I'm not altogether new to gardening my own vegetable garden is somewhat of a first.
As a child little devil-spawn I used to help my mum and dad with their garden which was quite extensive and included a fruit-tree orchard. I was the help forced child-labour...Just kidding. I loved it and learned a lot. Of course with the 176 intervening years to the present moment many things have been forgotten and, besides, I was just a little devil then; now I'm a bigger, and older, one. What I'm trying to say is that this is all a learning experience for me and I'm digging it!
Digging it. Get it? Digging it! Oh come on, you gotta pay that one. It was a little funny right? Hmm, alright maybe it wasn't legit - Can't blame me for trying though huh?
Today I thought I'd share some of what I'm putting into my garden beds.
I've put some thought into the available space at my disposal and the size and growing-characteristics of the vegetables I'll grow plus what I'd actually eat. I stayed away varieties that run too much due to space constraints although it's not entirely possible to do so. I'm going to put some thought into an idea @andrastia suggested, being trellis-systems, to add some vertical-growth options. I envisage chicken-wire frames and will experiment with the plants that may take to such upwardly-mobile growing techniques. Thanks for the suggestion Andy. Je vous remercie pour le soin.
Below is a list of what plants I have purchased and will plant out, probably later today. I still have to set up the irrigation system also...There might be an early departure from work on the horizon today. Just saying.
Vegetables:
Apple cucumber, burpless cucumber, spinach perpetual, lettuce green mignonette, capsicum sweet mixed, red onion, radish, cauliflower, baby broccoli, baby carrots, Aztec tomato, celery, dwarf green beans, eggplant (long purple) and strawberries.
Herbs:
Triple curled parsley, mixed basil, sweet marjoram, dill and thyme.
I already have a few other things growing in pots; red jalapenos for instance, mint, rosemary and assorted other herbs so I figured to add in a few things I'd make use of in cooking and salads. I'll expand it as I need over time.
The vegetables I have selected are all things I'd commonly eat and come the summer I should have a good deal of stuff to harvest and devour. Most of these things have grow-times of around 6-9 weeks actually, so before too long I'll be reaping a bountiful harvest from that which I sowed.
It's been really enjoyable so far, the process of thinking out and executing my plan. Of course, no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, and things are bound to go wrong but I'm ok with it. My life has been one long process of things going wrong, evaluating and redeploying differently and in between things went right too.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind