I've been wanting to plant a garden in the front yard for quite a while. Since the last attempt I've done a lot of research and have learned a bit more about how to plan out my garden before starting. We recently purchased a raised garden box kit that's about 4x6 feet and made room for it in our front yard right by the swing set.
We needed something off the ground and big enough to allow for the veggies and herbs to have enough room to grow to a decent size. It also needed to be off the ground to protect the plants from bunnies, neighborhood dogs and cats and the two toddlers who live here with us. Seeing as though the last garden turned into our son's sand box, we were going to make sure that this time around the plants were safe. I'm also planning on creating a wire cover to put over it at night to really prevent any visitors from visiting.
Our garden bed is filled with a small layer of sand, left over dirt from our recent front patio installation and organic soil from City Farmer's Nursery. We will also be buying our veggie plants and seeds from them as well. They have an awesome nursery filled with just about anything you might want to plant. And they have goats, chickens and more animals for the kids to love on while we wander around.
So once we had the garden bed and the soil it was time to start planning and planting. We are planning an organic garden to help feed our family fresh veggies and herbs but we also want to educate our kids about gardening when they're old enough. My 2.5 year old son is very curious about what's going on around him so I figured that it's the perfect time to start showing him what we're doing and why we're doing it. So while I was planning out the garden and figuring out where to put what I had him with me and I told him everything I was doing. And even let him help out a bit!
We chose to plant some winter vegetables including broccoli, lettuce, onions and yummy asparagus. The kids absolutely love broccoli so that was a no brainer. And the other veggies are hardy veggies that won't be hurt by lower temperatures. And since we live in Southern California we don't have to worry too much about frost. The garden, luckily, is in direct sunlight and will receive a lot of warmth and sunlight during the day.
In an effort to make sure I was picking the right plants and planting them with enough space to grow well I used a great software program called groOrganic. The groOrganic planner helped me select the types of vegetables to plant, how to prep the garden bed and now will help me to remember to sow, plant and harvest the garden. Hopefully this program will help reduce the chance of another black thumb this year. And come spring I might be able to plant some more yummy veggies for our family to enjoy! I'll be taking pictures of our garden's progress every few weeks and will keep the blog updated with the latest. And thankfully if I need help I know I can turn to groOrganic for answers and ideas.
A little more about groOrganic:
groOrganic, an innovative company, will provide 'full service' vegetable gardening for people with little time or experience. groOrganic can supply complete raised bed vegetable gardens installed and maintained by professionals or will consult with a client who just needs a little advice. groOrganic offers the most up to date gardening design and maintenance software technology. Our Garden Planner:
- Makes it easy to draw out your vegetable beds, add plants and move them around to get the perfect layout. Either feet and inches or metric units are supported and any shape of garden can be created.
- Adapts to suit your gardening style whether you use traditional row planting, raised beds or Square Foot Gardening.
- Adapts to your own area using our database of over 5000 weather stations.
- Prints your own personalized planting chart showing how many of each plant you require and when to sow, plant and harvest them.
- Sends email reminders twice a month of what needs planting from your garden plans.
For direct info on the groOrganic garden planner program visit the direct links here:
http://gardenplanner.groorganic.com/
http://store.groorganic.com/AssociationMemberships.aspx
To stay in the know about groOrganic become a fan of on facebook, follow them on Twitter, or subscribe to their blog! And check out some great photos on Flickr.
Want to WIN a 30-day membership to groOrganic?
groOrganic is offering 2 readers access to their Garden Planner FREE for 30 days! No obligation, no payment information necessary, NO STRINGS ATTACHED! Get ready for Spring now by designing your garden on your own groOrganic Garden Planner. If you're interested in starting your own organic garden this spring than enter for your chance to win below!
Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
Sponsored by Tomoson.com
7 comment(s) with love:
I would love to have our own garden! We even bought one of those garden boxes last summer but I've not even put it together yet!
We love gardening and have an organic garden, we need more ideas!! Think we'd try flowers.
We belong to a community garden and have our fall garden started.
I would love to plant carrots, and lettuce, and different kinds of beans.
tomato!
Anything that will grow in this OK red clay? I have grown tomatoes and g.peppers so far. Looking forward to learning more. I moved here from a state with black soil.
I want to grow a little bit of everything. Iwant a full size garden sooooo bad!
cc_girly@yahoo.com
Post a Comment