We have 4 boxes in a row (they are 4'x6') and a 10'x2' box on the side. They get sun during the morning to early afternoon and are shaded in the hot afternoon sun. In the back is my planting desk :) and the compost pile is behind the lattice on the right. All the beds have irrigation pipes running around the inside perimeter. We control waterflow by changing the heads (to spray a 1/4, 1/2 or full circle) and by putting in, or plugging up more heads. These are all connected to the central irrigation timer for our whole yard. Unfortunately EVERYTHING must be irrigated, as we only get rain in the month of February (with intermittent sprinkles in Oct-Jan-- like for a day or two each month!)

My DH's fabulous idea of covering the fence to the right with tons of sunflowers, from 2'-12' high was so great last year, so we have the seeds already in along the fence, and can't wait to see them come up.

The garden is also filled with lots of loved objects-- the chairs from my childhood dining room table, the desk of my fathers that was falling apart, an old found wheelchair (my father has been a paraplegic since age 6, though it was not HIS chair, it makes me think of him!), the sign for my father and husbands CPA practice before they merged with a large practice, other wonderful little things that make it OUR garden!
First photo is of the whole garden, second is a close up of the back, and the third is standing in the back, at the desk, and looking to the garden gate.

We have:
Butter Lettuces (green and red)
Haricot Verts (super skinny french green beans)
Carrots (orange and purple- daughter's pick!)
Sugar snap peas
12 kinds of Heirloom Tomatoes: 1884, Heart of Compassion, Paul Robeson, Earl's Faux, Kellogg's Breakfast, SunGold, Amy's Sugar Gem, Hawaiian Pineapple, Black Ethiopian, Mortgage Lifter and Goose Creek
Pumpkins (the tiny Jack Be Littles, and carving pumpkins)
Corn
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Butternut Squash
Tahitian Squash (a sweet winter squash- new for us this year!)
Watermelon (small Sugar Baby)
Cantaloupe
Hot Pepper
Sweet Pepper
4 Mini Sweet peppers (red/green, orange, yellow, chocolate)
Cucumber
Basil
Thyme
Sage
Oregano
Cilantro
Italian Parsley
Dill
Mint (in a pot so it cannot escape and take over the garden! That's it up close in the first photo!)
and various edible flowers to make it look beautiful- nasturtiums, marigolds, chrysanthemums, chamomile, etc.
Whew! Its work, but is great to see how much the kids love it!

I will try to post monthly photos here so I can chart the progress of the garden! I hope you enjoy it!

arwMommy
Mama to two kids, ages 5 and 9, 1 big dog, 10 chickens and a husband of 14 years!

I couldn't help but notice the "husband of 14 years" came last on the list after the dog and the chickens! LOL

Lloyd

Unfortunately, as you can tell, we are very suburban. This means we had very limited choices as to where to put the garden. While I'm sure it would have been better to put it somewhere where it got full sun all day, that is just not an option! But we have been growing here for a few years with no problems, so I guess it is OK! Thanks for the comments!

Wonder what THAT means...... :)

I love your space. I live in Southern CA and believe me when summer gets going your toms do need some shade or they will burn up.

I have to of the same wooden chairs in my landscape..that a friend was throwing out.!!

John

I plan to make the exact type of boxes for this season with Cedar, but am just curious on how I might fasten them.

I have to ask-- what is the Laineybug sign from? My youngest daughter's name is Elena, and I always call her my Laineybug!

Everything looks so much different now than when I first posted! I will take pics in the next day or two for the monthly update!

Deep South-- We are 9b (so. Calif) and so I plant out in the first week of April mostly. I will put in tomatoes and peppers in the next week (we are in a sheltered valley that gets cool at night-- so I have to wait a bit on those!) This next fall I will put in an official "Winter Garden" and plant peas, carrots, lettuces, that will be able to do very well over the winter/early spring.

SaraBell-- My 5 year old's name is Maclaine and we have always called her a zillion nicknames, the leaders being Miss Priss, and LaineyBug. We had the signs made (both the kids nicknames, our son's name is Alec) for us about 4 years ago. I first hung them in the playroom, but decided I wanted them outside in the garden instead!

First garden bed is the herbs,
Second bed is the squashes/melons
Third bed is corn/future pumpkins
Fourth bed is tomatoes
Long bed on Left is lettuces/carrots/beans/peas

Well, the seeds went in the first week of April. I am trying really hard to do Companion Planting so that we can build a healthy environment by bringing in good bugs and making it *easy* to garden organically!

I have really loved the "Great Garden Companions" book (http://www.amazon.com/Great-Garden-Companions-Companion-Planting-Chem ical-Free/dp/0875968473/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209091664 &sr=8-1 )
and have tried to incorporate those ideas into our little potager garden. So far, we have had some seedlings gobbled up by bugs, but the flowers make it so much more aesthetically pleasing that even if it takes a while for their benefit to be noticed it is worth it!

Almost everything here has been started by seed, with the exception of a few of the herbs and some of the flowers which were purchased at our farmer's market from a wonderful small organic grower. A cool thing you may notice is the little bug/bird water bath that is red in the 3rd bed. It is just a glazed pot saucer, but it has a rock that we got at the beach in it (with all the homes carved into it by mussles and other ocean creatures) so that the beneficial insects and other helpers can get water without diving into the big dish!

The other big addition to the garden this last month has been the increase in the compost pile (very back right, behind the lattice)! I cleaned out the chicken coop and added lots of straw, grass clippings and other kitchen scraps, and it will now sit and cook until the fall, when it will be spread out on the (mostly) empty beds. At that point I will again clean out the coop and start over, so that by early spring I have another big pile of compost. So far it has worked very well like that. Love those chickens and their poop!

You will also notice our big dog in these photos, (3.5 year old choc Lab, 105 pounds of muscle and energy!) and our daughter who loves her garden, and loves to pose!

Hope this gives everyone some ideas, inspiration and encouragement-- I have gleaned so much from all of you!

I am a tad bit jealous as we just had a winter storm go through here yesterday (snow, freezing rain the whole bit). I know some people one person will dispute that it can't be a "winter" storm because we are into spring, but trust me, this was a winter storm.

I look forward to next months pictures.

Lloyd

The back half of the garden-- tomatoes in back box, corn, pumpkins on front box. On left is lettuce, beans, corn, sugar snap peas.

The beautiful compost pile! I can't share it with anyone else but you guys-- everyone thinks I am crazy! It is about 4' deep, 2.5' wide and 3' high. It is covered daily in rose petals from the roses above-- it makes it even more beautiful! I'm a dork!!! :)

The blackberries and raspberries. The whole fenceline isn't in the photo, but it is about 40-50' long.

~ sweetannie4u

I come from a family of accountants and attorneys where everyone is on "billable time" so everything comes out to "how much is my time worth?" By those standards, each tomato might be cheaper if bought at the Farmer's Market, however, the joy I get from watching them grow, the knowledge I am giving to my children about gardening, the connection to the whole process, and the fact that I am growing things organically and sustainably are huge paybacks for me that cannot be measured in "billable time" alone!

Thanks again!

-kristi

This is July 1, 2008

looking back toward the garden gate

Carrots, hericot verts, lettuces, nasturtium...

Crazy heirloom tomatoes (even though I meant to plant intensly, this was *too* much in this box!)

And this is August 9, 2008
We were on vacation the whole month of July (didn't think through what that would do to my garden) and my lovely neighbors totally overrode the timers and overwatered my tomato plants and so they crashed! The squashes took over, too!

So now we are begining to plant (this week! Whoo hoo for living in Southern Calif!), and I will continue to post updates, hopefully better than I did last year!

Hope you enjoy~~~

Much love,
arwMommy

Our flock under the grapevines:

And some new fluffybutt babies under our broody chicken in October. She was broody (sitting on eggs that were infertile- we don't have a rooster-- a natural instinct that hasn't been bred out of some breeds) so I ordered her some babies to raise. (this was a composite photo I sent to family of my daughter's new chicks, hence the writing)

She is not in the above coop, but in a separate little area to keep the babies away from the big hens for a little while.

Keep in mind that we are doing all of this on an 8,000 square foot suburban lot! If we can have a garden, fruit trees, blackberry/raspberry bushes, grapes, chickens, a huge 105# dog, and 2 very active kids on a piece of property this size, anyone can!!

Good luck!

It is amazing what can be done on a small lot. I am lucky to have almost 2/3 of an acre. The down side is that it is almost all shady and I don;t want to cut down any more trees. We already removed a number of them to open the house up to more light and provide a sunny spot for veggies.

So far we have planted snow peas, lettuce, arugula, beets, radishes, scallions, kale. I was given a number of raspberry bushes from a friend and now have a 20 ft row. I'm hoping for a few berries, but it will probably be next year before I get much of a crop. I also have a fig tree and plan to put in a peach and an apple tree as well as a bunch of blueberry bushes. They grow very well in our area and tolerate a fair amt of shade.

Our family consists of 2 big dogs, 1 little 4 yo boy, me and my hubby. Off site I also have a horse who provides lots of manure for the garden!

Thanks again for the inspirational photos. I'm looking forward to more!

The coop is sitting on the concrete, though there is now about 12-16" of straw covering it. We had originally planned to put it on soil, but forgot that the neighbor on that side has a satanic dog that would terrorize our chickens! So it went on the other side of the house on the cement pad. This also prevents any predators from digging under the coop, so I guess its OK. We started off with only 2-3 chickens as well. But we started with bantams (minature chickens, about 1/4 the size) so they would do less destruction to our landscape and so my daughter could more easily hold them. We have been very happy with them, especially the Cochin breed, which are very calm and sweet.

I would STRONGLY suggest you visit www.backyardchickens.com/forum and look around there for a while....there is so much fabulous info there. Over 22,000 members across the country and so much knowledge. I spent hours and hours on the site and learned so much before we even got the babies. Another great source of info was http://www.mypetchicken.com/ebook.aspx

This really spells it all out! Have fun! My daughter has really enjoyed the last few years with our chickens! Here she is reading books to them in the doghouse :)

Is your broody hen a Cochin? That's nice that you gave her a family to raise, she looks so content. It's got to be a great start for the chicks too.

And a berry question -- how many berries did you originally plant for a 50' row? We have about the same length of fence and I'm buying more Olallieberries today.

Yes, she's a Cochin, and we have more babies coming in about a month........I can't wait!

That fenceline has like 10 plants on it-- 6 are blackberry, 4 are raspberry. The blackberries have done MUCH better for me. I should go up to Cambria and get some Olalieberry bushes (and have some pie at Linn's!).

Thanks again.

Do you buy your chicks locally from a feed store or do you mail order? Mail order seems like a tough start for those little chicks but I guess that's how they get to the feed stores as well.

I ended up buying one more ollalieberry and three thornless boysenberries upon the recommendation at one of the local nurseries. She still has a selection of berries but other places are sold out. According to another nursery, ollalieberries were in short supply this season so call ahead before you make the drive up. And have a slice of Raspberry-Rhubarb pie for me at Linn's!

So it is a couple of years later, and the garden is at the start of the season again and I am back on GardenWeb! Today my daughter harvested the volunteer potatoes that have been growing the last few months (no doubt from our compost!). She was thrilled......she looks so much older than the photos from a couple of years ago.....sigh.

I don't have photos of the garden yet, as there are just sprouts and some tomato plants just started, but will try to update from time to time again this year. I did include a copy of our garden plan for the year, I know some of the text may be hard to read, so from the blue box on the left, going clockwise:

Chair/Hose (an old chair I have over the spigot that I wrap the hose up onto)

Worm Bin

Bench

Carrots, celery, lettuce, pole beans

Potting table

Tomato boxes (see box at right for variety)

Blue circle: bird bath (there is also a bird feeder just to the right that isn't on the map)

Poatoes, anna swartz squash, chives, golden beets

Basil, hot pepper, sweet pepper, chard, parsley, oregano, thyme and sage in the middle.

Mint in pot

Compost bins

With flowers as the yellow band on the back and the far right.

Happy Spring and Planting to you all.....

arwMommy