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By Alyssa, September 6, 2011 10:42 am

Remember my weak sauce suburb garden from last year?

This year I had zero motivation to redo the garden, but Haus surprised me by installing an automatic drip system on Mother’s Day.  Hmmmm, no watering work, I thought.  Why not throw a few seeds out there.

So that’s exactly what I did.  I used all the seeds I purchased last year, bought a couple bags of compost to mix into the existing dirt, and let the boys help plant.

What happened next was crazy!  With an automatic watering system nourishing the plants 10 minutes in the morning and evening, I became the owner of the garden of Eden.

Squash with lettuce thrown in

Marigolds surrounding beets, carrots, and lettuce

I enjoyed fresh salad from the garden all summer and yesterday I harvested about a dozen beets and carrots I hadn’t touched since planting in June.

Lesson learned?  Go ahead and buy a super easy to install drip watering system and watch your thumb turn green.

P.S. As a side note, I don’t think my harvest was quite as plentiful using last year’s seeds but it didn’t cost me anything extra so I didn’t care.

P.P.S. The Dig Corp drip irrigation starter kit Haus bought and supplemented from Home Depot cost us about $50 total.

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By Alyssa, August 4, 2010 9:01 pm

Some of you may be wondering why I haven’t posted an update to my little gardening experiment since May. Remember how fresh and new my garden looked right after the seeds were planted?

Sadly, the reason I haven’t updated you is, well… I’m embarrassed.  It seems my thumb isn’t quite as green as I thought it could be.  My back row of cucumbers all died, even after reseeding them twice, and the only thing that really seems to be growing in this area is basil.  I’m really good at growing basil.

I’m not giving up.  After reseeding the carrots and lettuce, I have some good sprouts and I harvested enough beets today to feed… me.  But really, you should have seen Bubba’s face when he pulled them up. Definitely worth it.

Ignoring my attempts at square foot gardening, I’m actually pretty darn good at growing squash and tomatoes.  Check out these before pictures:

Now they look like this:

Nice, huh?  Yep, bring it tomatoes and squash.  I’m keeping hope alive even though my first harvest looked like this…

I’ve learned some great lessons like watering your garden regularly means more than once a day when it’s 90 degrees out, lettuce really is a cold season veggie so don’t expect great results in July, and remember to tell your 4-year-old that those 2 cm carrots aren’t quite ready yet BEFORE he pulls half of them out.

So my first harvest was kind of puny, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be up to my ears, literally, in squash before this gardening venture is done.  And even if it isn’t I promise to provide updates more regularly, even if I’m embarrassed!

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By Alyssa, May 26, 2010 2:52 pm

Welp, I’m a gardener now.  I have a garden.  Don’t mean to brag, but man did I work hard on it!  Remember this area?  And that box I picked up for free on Craigslist?

I painted it, along with a few scrap wood boxes Haus made for me (we enlisted the neighbors to help move the big box into the backyard)…

Then I drilled 1/4″ holes in the bottom for drainage and stapled black weather guard to the bottom of the scrap wood boxes (I heart power tools)…

I put a 1/2″ of peat rock in the bottom of each box and then mixed 1/3 assorted compost, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss (only place I could find Vermiculite in Denver was the American Clay Works and Supply Company.  $20 for that huge bag.) …

In the last step, I filled all of the boxes about 8-10 inches full of my soil and planted!  Here’s my main square foot garden with cucumbers (in the milk jug “hot caps”), herbs, lettuce, beets, carrots, and marigolds in the corners:

Craigslist box

In the scrap boxes I planted winter and summer squash with a marigold border (on the left), and tomatoes with a basil border (on the right):

I used old milk jugs without caps and bottoms cut off to make hot caps for the tomato and cucumber transplants.  I didn’t think they would survive the current Colorado night temperatures or wind without them.  As soon as summer really hits around here, I’ll phase them out.  Next time I’ll post about my transplant mistakes and tomato cage discovery (Did you notice the cages are upside down?).

Please post tips for me if you have them. I’ve spent $50 on seeds/transplants and $80 on soil and Hubby Haus is kinda hoping to see a return on the investment.  Your gardening secrets would help!  Happy gardening, friends!

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By Alyssa, May 6, 2010 1:50 pm

Here’s updated pictures of my soon-to-be garden area.

Remember this?

The side yard facing west

After 6 hours of hard labor and a wicked sunburn…

About 3 hours in... (with my Cowboy helper)

The area now looks like this:

I moved all of the rock on the south side of the yard by the fence, extended the rock on the north end, and just need to get my square foot gardens in place.  Tomato transplants show up tomorrow so I better get moving.  Happy Spring!

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By Alyssa, April 22, 2010 6:31 pm

As I write this post, it’s hailing and raining and thundering outside.  Thank goodness my little seedling starters are cozy in their seed starting tray.

Bubba and I planted marigolds, cucumbers, and a variety of herbs on Saturday and they sprouted almost immediately!  A few books told me to wait until a few strong sprouts pop up and then pinch off all put one strong seedling per compartment.  We’re waiting… patiently.  We hope to plant these outside in our garden after the last frost.

In other news, Haus built an amazing sandbox last weekend.  Remember what the sandbox area used to look like?

Haus borrowed the plans on a blog we found called Dover Projects and altered a few things to create a 6 x 6 foot sandbox too fabulous to describe.  Because I married an engineer, not only were rocks moved, ground leveled, and peat gravel laid prior to the sandbox’s arrival to its new plot of land, but the edges of the box were routed, sanded, and painted to match our house.  Gotta love that man.

I’ve already enjoyed the ease of preparing dinner with an open window to monitor two satisfied sandy kids.  We also decided that since the kids play in the monster doghouse more than the dog, we should keep it near their play area.  Here’s what it looks like now.  We moved A LOT of rocks.

My next project is sanding and painting my free Craigslist planter, a 4 x 5 foot box that I’m turning into my square-foot garden.  This box used to be the indoor lost and found container at a local gymnastics center.  I saw the free listing, drove up, and with the assistance of a few strong gymnasts, left with a perfect waist-high, 12-inch deep planter.  Can you say, SCORE?

You should have seen Haus’ face when he saw that in the back of the truck.  Even though he half admits to the impressiveness of the frugal find, I’m no longer allowed to peruse Craigslist while I have the truck keys nearby.  Weather permitting, I hope to be posting a picture of this freshly painted planter in my garden area next week.  Until then, happy spring, friends!