Garden Update

I haven't blogged in a coon's age, have I?  I don't know why... I can't lay claim to any exceptional level of busy-ness.  I mean, I work, then I come home, I make sure to get a workout and a full 10,000 steps in per day... and then all I really want to do is read or watch TV.  Writing has been limited to one-line Facebook statuses here and there.  We haven't been up to any major baby preparations yet.  The nursery will come together over Memorial Day weekend.

But today I wanted to blog to show you an update of my sweet little garden!  I just ADORE it... although this year, pregnant as I am, I've taken a decidedly "lower-maintenance" approach out there.  For one thing, I nixed the squash and zucchini.  Trying to grow those things organically, getting scratched and scraped by the vines while trying to kill squash bugs and larvae... NOT fun!  I'd just as soon buy organic zucchini at Kroger.  I also nixed potatoes this year.  :(  That actualy makes me very sad because I thoroughly enjoyed growing and eating my garden potatoes last year!  They were wonderful... and EASY as far as pests and disease were concerned.  They were NOT easy, however, where my back was concerned.  Digging up those potatoes was hard work... and I don't think I'd be able to handle it eight months preggo in the 90-100 degree days of a Little Rock summer!  Nope.  No potatoes this year.

But in their place, I've added strawberries (YUM.)  (Not directly in their place, mind you, because you're not supposed to plant strawberries in a bed where you've had potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and a few other random things within the past five years.  It exposes them to some sort of disease.)

Oh, and did you know strawberries are perennial?  That means these babies'll be back year after year if I tend them properly!

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Where my zucchini grew last year, I plant to plan as many tomato plants as I can squeeze in!  (This is my first seedling to get big enough to move outside... lucky little guy.)  It's a brandywine... quite a delicious heirloom variety!

And in my third bed, I've got carrots and buttercrunch lettuce growing.  Last year my lettuce (while productive) was not all that tasty.  So this year I selected a different variety.  The caterpillars are loving it... so I figure that means its better-tasting.

(You might notice that the far end of this bed seems quite a bit more productive than the closer end.  That is because I'm staggering the planting of the carrots and lettuce.  Last year I waited weeks and weeks for carrots, and then when they were ready for harvest, I had to pull them up all at once.  And what the heck does anyone need like 40 carrots at once for???  This year I'm planting a small section every three weeks.  Same with the lettuce, for the same reason.  I think it's a brilliant plan.)

So, like I said, pretty basic.  Carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries.  Next year I'll probably have to construct new beds just so I can make up for such a low variety this year.  (Plus I just gave up a whole bed to strawberries I won't be digging up.)  Might have to call up my ole' buddy Jay Skinner next year to build me a few more!  (He better never get married or move away or do anything that would take up too much of his time.  I need him at my house!)