And Spring gave Summer a miss...

So winter never really came and all of a sudden it seems we are in the middle of June here in Minnesota... very odd in deed. Usually sometime in March we get a "warm spell" of 30-40 degrees or so, just enough to give you hope. Then we are hit with more snow until late April.

But this year the snow never really came and, well, I was counting on a snowy March to finalize my garden plans. No such luck, so I find myself scrambling. We may get a frost yet... but it certainly won't be in May. So I finally find myself "behind" in starting plants that needed starting (tomatoes). Over the weekend I drafted up the page you see above for my square foot garden. It will have a trellis on one side for climbing plants. The idea behind square foot gardening is to plant very compactly, eliminating rows used in traditional gardens.  I ordered the seeds today...




...The order above is from seed saver's exchange in Iowa. There was also $6.00 shipping... so almost 30 bucks. Like most things, the garden is going to be the most costly this year (the first) because materials (and seeds) can hopefully be used next year.

My plan for the bed is to cut two 2"X12"x8' in half, giving a 4x4 bed. Each square you see above is 1 foot x 1 foot. I think plywood will work for the bottom, with some drainage holes. I am going to try raise it off the ground with cement blocks. Then comes the dirt, which I am not excited to see the price for... I expect that to be costly. Now I am not the most mechanical, but I am going to make it myself, or die trying ;).

So I started racking my brain with how much of everything to get, but I ended up deciding that I just wanted to take this as a learning experience, choose a few things I like, and go through the process this year. I can worry about what I want more of next year.

So the varieties I chose are as follows:

Carrots, St Valery See them here
Cucumber, Bushy OG http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=111(OG)
Pepper, Habenero Mustard (for Equah, will be in a separate pot) http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1306
Swiss Chard, 5 color silverbeet http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=46(OG)
Bean, Black Valentine http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=201
Turnip, Purple Top White http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=201
Bell Pepper, King of the North http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1343
Tomato, Cherry Roma http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=974
Tomato, Hillbilly Tomato Leaf http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=979

Really, these are chosen by nothing more than the online descriptions and whatever looked like fun to grow. I figured I could wrack my brain and spend hours studying something I knew nothing about, or I could give it a shot and learn as I go. I chose the latter. It's my first vegetable garden and I just want to have fun with it and get my hands dirty. I chose heirlooms, because I'm particularly attached to them. When given the chance I went for striking varieties that would be inspiring to grow. I will likely have stumbles along the way, but hopefully it will be somewhat successful. I also will have some potted herbs and hot peppers (I didn't want to try reaching over these to tend other plants). The seeds are ordered, and hopefully this weekend I will start some indoors and get the bed built. We will see, weekends get busy fast around here.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone