So...today I brought out my newly repaired tiller and added about 250 square feet to my garden. About half of this is a long stretch along the back fence, that is very likely to be planted with grean beans, and the other is a square that will likely become home to canteloupe, watermelon, and whatever other vining plants I feel the urge to put there.
Overall my gardening philosophy is that I plant what I can store. We had moderate success with green beans in the fall, canning 27 pints from a small patch. This spring I am hoping to have enough tomatoes, peppers, and beans that we will be able to put some up. We will be planting potatoes as well, but they are an experiment, and we don't know how well they will keep in our warm home.
Once I figure out how to keep the basic growing here in Texas, then I will likely add some more variety for the garden for fun, but for now I am happy if I can just get these to grow!
Reading this makes me want to start seedlings... but it's still winter here.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to segregate plants that can cross pollinate. It was starting to sound like you might put all the cucerbits in the same space. I seem to recall us growing some funky plants back when we were kids.
ReplyDeleteAre you getting into some annual crop rotations in you little spaces? Rotating some legumes in there once in a while?
When you water the garden, to you tell people that you are irrigating the crops?
Seems like we had some odd watermelons with a bit of a cucumber flavor here one year (this past summer I think). We weren't sure if they cross-pollinated or just didn't get big enough and ripe enough to have that true watermelon flavor.
ReplyDeleteSounds like some pretty ambitious gardening for your little yard. I laughed at the irrigating the crops comment!
Nice Joelseph. I was very surprised to here a word like cucerbits from you! I believe cross-polination is only an issue if you save seeds, I don't think it impacts the fruit, just the seeds and the fruit grown from them.
ReplyDeleteFunny comment about irrigation...I actually use drip line that is designed for in-ground irrigation of real crops, it seems to work much better then soaker hoses. I will be doing a major overhaul of my drip system soon, so it will probably be getting a post of its own.