Operation Garden 2011

This year's garden is off to a slow start thanks to all the rain and thunderstorms we've been having lately. My in-laws decided not to plant this year as my father-in-law was visiting Puerto Rico during prime planting/tilling time. They did plant two little bean seeds in our garden, but he didn't even plant anything in his own yard this year. That means we have our whole HUGE garden to ourselves with room to plant whatever we want.

It was much easier to do the tilling this year since we had the garden in the same spot last year.  We rented a tiller from Home Depot for a day and after a slight learning curve, A.R. started tilling away. We plan to buy our own tiller in the fall or later this summer when they go on sale now that we'll have a shed to store it in (look for a post on that coming soon!). We'll till again in the fall before the winter comes to work some fertilizer into the soil in hopes that it'll make spring preparations a bit easier next year and to replenish any lost nutrients from having the garden in the same spot two years in a row.

This year we are doing things a bit differently with the planting as well.  I decided to buy a Farmer's Almanac and use it to plant my seeds by the phases of the moon.  Farmers have been doing it for centuries, so why not give it a shot?!  I started my seeds indoors on May 16th, which according to the charts in the Almanac was prime planting time.  I've also moved them outdoors and planted in the ground during June's prime planting days.  I still have just under half the plants to transplant, but right now our garden is too muddy with all the storms we've been having.  I'm hoping to get the last of them in this Wednesday and I'm praying that the plants I already have in the ground don't rot or float away!

A.R. tilled the garden once with the rented tiller and to do the rows he tilled again using a tiller attachment that goes with his Ryobi weed wacker.  That thing is amazing!  It has all sorts of attachments you can get for it and has earned the money we've spent on it and the attachments tenfold.  We switched up the rows this year and sowed the rows the opposite way and divided our garden in half.  I'll have to take a photo once it's all planted. :)

Now, for the great list of what we've planted: tomato, potato, carrots, beans, sunflowers (to attract pollinating insects and for the seeds), acorn squash, yellow (summer) squash, butternut squash, zucchini, green beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, and broccoli.  Here is hoping we reap the fruits and veggies of our labor.  We're hoping to harvest enough that we can share with all of Alexi's family and even some coworkers, too.