My Pictorial Gardening Notebook

For the past few years I have tried to keep notes on what I do in the garden in a spiral bound notebook. Things I have put in are when I trim, what I plant and when, when things start blooming, etc. The problem is I start out pretty well in early spring and then I forget about it. This year I decided I am going to put it here on my blog for my reference. Some of you might find it interesting, if not, sorry! Maybe you'll like some of my other blogs better.

Also, those of you still in snow, I am not posting pictures to rub it in. Depending on which source I chose to believe, the last frost date in my area is sometime between yesterday and April 14.  If I lived in the snow, I'd probably be in a walker or wheelchair - my knees do not like wet and cold.  But, if I did live in colder climes I could grow some fruit that need plenty of frost hours. hmmm...

Spring has a smell on my block - plum blossoms. Our street is lined with them and they just started blooming the past week (per my notebook, this is the same time as the last two years). The smell is intense, especially when it is warm (mid 70's to low 80's this past few days).

Underneath the foot or so of top soil the builders added when the house was built, the ground underneath is clay! Slow draining, nearly impossible to dig through unless it is wet. My natives love it, but edibles are pretty tough to grow. Hence, I am going all containers this year. Lots of hand watering. Luckily I have an almost 5 year old to "help" me.

I finished my milk crate planters and filled them with potting soil yesterday.  I sewed the landscape fabric together to make the liners. I originally saw them on Extra Virgin (Cooking Channel) just stapled together, but I didn't want to risk the soil leaking since I may be moving them around a bit to find the sunniest spots of my yard.

Now I am just waiting on the seedlings we planted last week to pop up. We already have a few sprouts on the cilantro and basil, but nothing on the ones I really want, the tomatoes! Patience, Audrey, patience.

Of course, I just realized that the herbs are in mini greenhouses and the tomatoes are not. I shall have to get creative and fix that - TODAY.

I also recieved my order of green bean inoculant this past week. Later today we will probably direct sow those into two of the milk crate planters. I am hoping this will end the infertility problem with legumes I've had for the last 6 years. The plants grow nicely, but never produce ANYTHING. And that is one of the two things my husband asks me to grow.

I also have to find a permanent (at least for the season) place for this raised bed planter. It wasn't getting enough sun on the other side of the house, and where I have it here, still may not be enough. Might leave it and just put the carrots and beets there. Decisions, decisions.

Has anyone tried square foot gardening? how about vertical gardening? I'd love to hear what worked and didn't work for you.