Seed and Bean

Snow is covering the kitchen garden and nothing is left for me to do but plan for next year (while this last season’s harvest is still fresh in my mind).  Still, while I am familiar with what went on in my garden, you’re not, so here’s what happened…

 When we moved in to the rental house, we identified this patch of lawn to be the best place for the kitchen garden – the most sun, visible from the kitchen window, and with existing boundaries that made sense.

We stripped off the sod, added 2″ of compost and a sprinkling of bonemeal, and tilled it all in.  After digging out the paths and using the soil to create slightly raised beds, this was the result.

After planting, we went away for a couple of weeks during June/July.  Fortunately, I’d installed an above-ground irrigation system on a timer (and we had some rain while we were gone) so I came back to a garden that looked like this (if you look closely you can see my husband in the background taking it all in).

But then things started getting out of control and by August the garden was a mess!  Part of the problem was that I couldn’t decide on a mulch material for the path so I just left it and weeds started to take over.  The other issue was that I’d fertilized three times during the season with a combination of a liquid fish fertilizer and nettle tea and the plants became rambunctious.

After some significant thinning and cutting back though, I think I got it under control…

…until the cold weather hit!

Now you know the story of the first season in the garden so you’ll be ready for my next post…making changes.