Monday, March 26, 2012

The Plan

Here it is.  The layout of my future garden plot.  It's even to scale.

Epic Plan

The color code is based on timing. Yellow gets started indoors and transplanted near the end of May.  Blue can go in right around the final frost date (April 17) and green needs the soil to warm up a bit (middle to end of May).

I even tried to separate the vegetables that don't like each other. I hear tomatoes and cucumbers are like crips and bloods.  But thats just what I hear.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

A bit of history

I have decided to take on a challenge, and that challenge is producing produce.  I attempted this last summer by buying two tomato plants, a planter, an "upside-down" planter (so the two plants could duel) and ended up with this:


The two tomato plants dueled and cumulatively produced one tomato.  It was delicious, but I was hoping for more.  I also had some herbs (seen on the right side) which I also bought pre-started, which did fine, but weren't much of a challenge.

This summer I am, in all likelihood, biting off more than I can chew.  But I like to dream big.  I have rented a 45' by 22.5' plot from the city of Columbus, IN in the community garden.  I think part of my epic failure of last summer was due to the fact that my small patio only receives sunlight for 2 to 3 hours a day.  While the community garden is more inconvenient than my back porch, it is necessary if I actually want any fresh produce.

One big change from last summer will be that I am attempting to start my plants from seeds.  I've done a bit of research on this and thought I'd give it a try. If all else fails, I can always go buy starter plants again, but I hope it doesn't come to that.

A Groupon came up yesterday for this kit and I decided to go for it.  I've also purchased some additional seeds and starting materials.  So far, including the land, I've spent $95.  Who knows, maybe I'll grow enough veggies to start selling my extras! At the very least, I hope to be canning some of them to be better prepared for the apocalypse.  It is 2012, you know.