Sep 08 2005
Neophyte Gardeners
Over Labor Day weekend, Robert worked like a slave building a couple of raised beds for our nascent vegetable garden. He follwed the plans provided in an editorial titled Noble Rot by John Mackenzie (it’s interesting to me that a gardening “how-to” was posted on a financial website…). The author has had great success growing a high-yield garden in these small beds. Coupling what we learned from that article and some information we gleaned from Square Foot Gardening, we hope to have a small “taste” of success later this fall/winter.
The family spent some time at the local garden center last Sunday morning talking with experts about dirt (can you imagine anything more exciting than that???). They recommended a particular blend which would be suitable for starting a garden at this time of year. They also told us how many yards we would need based on the dimensions of our raised beds.
The guy operating the tractor graciously gave us a “little extra” when loading the soil into our truck. It turns out that his definition of “a little” is quite a bit different than our own. Our raised beds are way too full (we need to build more, eventually), so Robert used some of the excess to enrich the horribly neglected flower bed in the front yard.
As you can see above, I already planted a few vegetable starts I found at the nursery. I planted some Swiss chard, cauliflower, cabbage, and kale. I also planted some brussel sprouts in the front yard:
I wonder what our neighbors will think if they actually grow into the tall stalks they’re supposed to, despite the fact that I planted them too close together. Brussel sprouts look a bit like alien vegetation when they’re full grown! However, let no one say vegetables can’t be just as pretty as flowers. Just look at those colors of the Swiss chard I planted. Stunning!
I thought it would be a good idea to plant some nursery raised plants, so I could have a little experience caring for veggies. I’m not confident that the radish, spinach, romain and cress seeds that I sowed will actually develop into anything. My insecurity over this prompted me to start some seeds indoors and some outdoors. I wasn’t sure what the best method would be…it’s getting a little bit chilly here!
Normally, I’ve been keeping those containers under some plastic to keep the humidity level up. I took them off for a better picture. Now, considering the fact that I’ve never really grown anything from seed besides a sunflower when I was in grade school, I’m sure you can appreciate why I danced a jig when I first saw those radishes sprout. How thrilling!
After doing all this work, Robert and I have been discussing some issues we realize we’re going to have to face. One of the major ones is the shadiness of the area in which we placed the raised beds. One thing we’ll be doing is limbing some of the tall trees in our backyard to allow more sunshine to stream down onto the growing plants. Once we feel a little more confident, we’ll probably build more beds in the front yard, which gets as much sun as anywhere else in rainy Seattle 
We’re also going to have to figure out an efficient way to start lots of seeds in the spring. Our current set-up is a bit awkward. Also, figuring out how deep to plant seeds was tricky for us. We understand the technical description of how deep to plant the seed, but actually doing it is another matter.
Another thing we found difficult was spacing the plants. Every book we read on the subject suggested different distances. Apparently plants require more room in winter gardens and more room in traditional gardens, i.e. those where plants are sowed in long rows (our raised beds are smaller and plants are supposed to be planted a little closer together.)
I’m sure these things will become second nature when we gain a little more experience. To speed up that process just a little, I’ll be taking a comprehensive organic gardening class from Seattle Tilth in October. I’m really looking forward to that program!
