Been a While Eh?

Ray's Garden has been on an unannounced hiatus for the past month. Those of you reading now, thanks for not abandoning me.

Life for this novice gardener has been a little hectic as of late. Some great changes have been happening in my life which has, unfortunately, kept me from devoting time to this lovely blog of mine. But, never fear for I return with great hope for the future...

The spring is fast approaching. Winter's benumbing weather has begun to break and I now wake to the warming sun. I've begun to see sprouts of grass growing in my yard and my garden is starting to fill with the perennial annoyance of weeds. So, I say to myself, "self, it's time to get back to it".

With that in mind, I've made a weekly goal checklist. My hope is that by the end of the month and beginning of April I will have a fully planted garden ready to start growing.

Week 1

Buy seeds

Veggie Garden

Thanks to all of you who voted in my "What Should I Grow" poll. The winner, by a landslide, was okra! How fun. Okra was one of the first crops I ever grew. As a child my dad put me in charge of my own little plot of the garden and almost every year I chose to grow okra. I even had the pleasure of pickling some okra with him this past Fall and I hope to have a chance to pickle some of my very own okra this Fall. I think this veggie will be a perfect addition to my garden and I'm very excited to see how it turns out.

Now, as you may recall from my previous post Thinking Ahead I decided to plant squash, green beans, and tomatoes as well. My goal this week is to go to my local natural food coop and look though the seeds they have from the Seed Saver Exchange. I'll make sure you're the first to know what varieties I choose.


Flower Garden
This year I don't plan on changing up my flower garden too much. I loved the sunflowers I did last year and I have no desire to remove the beautiful hostas. The only change I intend to make is removing the alyssum and replacing it with some purple zinnias I got from my family. I think this will make for another beautiful flower garden.  

Plant seeds
By the end of the week I will have all of my seeds planted. Last year I started this too late and as a result I lost a lot of great harvest time. I won't make the same mistake this year. Again, I'll keep you informed as this process occurs.

Week 2

Prep the garden
In week 2 I will prepare both plots for planting. In this week I will till (yes I will be getting a tiller this year), add any necessary additives such as peat moss or coir, and set up my hoses. Last year, as seen in my post From the Soil... I did all this by hand. But, I think the use of a tiller will greatly improve my gardening results by helping to fully incorporate any additives I'm using and by breaking up the soil more thoroughly.

Week 3

Plant companion plants
Last year the pests just got out of hand. I lost a lot of good plants to bugs and I have no intention of letting the same thing happen this year. One of the ways I hope to prevent this from occurring is to do some companion planting. I have a bag of marigold seeds which I will plant throughout my veggie garden. Marigolds are supposed to be great pest deterrents and I plan on putting that to the test.


Week 4

Plant the garden
By this point I hope to have some great seedlings started and with any luck I will be able to move them into the ground. With a well tilled and cultivated garden ready to go this process should, in theory, be easy. I see this as the final touch to the garden process. From this point on out it'll be a maintain and harvest game.

So long as I follow my plan, I should be done planting my garden by the beginning of April. This will give me a good and long growing season...or so I hope.



Oh, and don't worry, I'll keep you informed all along the way.