Garden in May

Here are the new pictures of the garden May 15th 2012

this is taken from the end

This is the top view at the end ~ turnips, leeks, peppers and tomatoes

this is going down the first planter ~ tomatoes, swiss chard, little eggplants

on left the baby eggplants, tomatillos, brussel sprouts

garlic

cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and just barely can see the radishes bottom right

carrots, arugula at the bottom, celery and big chinese cabbage 

chinese cabbage and top right cucumber

corn

So here are the pictures of the garden with the plants I started from seeds

If you click on the first picture you can read what is planted so far









Close up picture of my lady bugs. I got these at a garage sale and they were all rusty. I cleaned them up and repainted  them

Close up of the garden here you can see the sprouts from the seeds I planted directly into the garden ~ raddishes, spinach, carrots, lettuce.


The plants with the straw around them is the garlic we planted in November. It should be ready in July.
Next to that are the brussel sprouts I started under lights in the garage and then a row of early girl tomatoes, a row of Roma, tomatoes and a row of Big boy tomatoes all started in the garage. Notice also the pink string making this a square foot garden

This is what my garden plants look like now

So today we are going to get garden soil for the new planter box because as you can see the tomatoes and turnips need to be planted asap!!

Here is a few updated pictures of my seeds, now little sprouts

Adding to the garden

These are pictures of us expanding the garden (yes I helped). We added another 12x4 foot section and will be adding a 12x 1 foot section along the fence for the peas and beans on the next sunny Oregon day!! The area with the chicken wire is where we planted the garlic last November before we decided to try the square foot gardening. We let the chickens into this part of the yard during the winter that is why it is covered with the wire. 

Planning the garden

 So I have mapped out our garden into 1 foot sections we will have 3 12 x 4 foot raised beds this year and I am adding 24x1 foot raised bed along the fence for the peas and beans to grow. Sorry for some reason the grids did not copy over. Today I started seeds for the cold weather plants - Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, leeks, turnips. I took these pictures after I planted them.

garlic	garlic	garlic	garlic	1 broccoli	1 broccoli	1 caulif	1  caulif	4 celery	4 celery	1 collard greens	1 collard greens
garlic	garlic	garlic	garlic	1 broccoli	1 broccoli	1 caulif	1   caulif	4  celery	4 celery	4 Chinese cabbage	4 swiss chard
garlic	garlic	garlic	garlic	1 cabbage	1 cabbage	16 carrots	16 carrots	iceburg	iceburg	9 spinach	9 spinach
garlic	garlic	garlic	garlic	1 cabbage	1 cabbage	16 raddishes	16 raddishes	Arugula	Arugula	Salad greens	Salad greens

            

				y	y	y		corn	corn	corn	corn
	z	z	z	y	Yellow squash	y		corn	corn	corn	corn
	z	zuchini	z	y	y	y		corn	corn	corn	corn
	z	z	z					corn	corn	corn	corn
Basal	Basal	Basal	Basal	1 pepper	1 pepper	1 pepper	1 tomatillo	1 tomatillo	9  leeks  l	1 brussel sprouts	1 brussel sprouts
tomato	tomato	tomato	tomato	1 pepper	1 pepper	1 pepper	1   egg  plant	1    egg   plant	9 leeks	1 brussel sprouts	1 brussel sprouts
tomato	tomato	tomato	tomato	1 pepper	1 pepper	1 pepper	9   beets	9   beets	9   leeks	1 brussel sprouts	1 brussel sprouts
Basal	Basal	Basal	Basal	1 pepper	1 pepper	1 pepper	9 turnips	9  turnips	9 turnips	1 brussel sprouts	1  brusse sprouts

Peas

Peas

Peas

Peas

Peas

Peas

beans

beans

beans

beans

beans

beans

the 4 R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Respect

Over the years, in the back of my head a small voice has whispered to me to do my part, how small it might be, to help reduce the pollution I generate!! I have done small things, like refusing to buy water in plastic bottles and opting for reusable water containers instead and switching out all my traditional light bulbs for compact florescent. I am not sure if it is because I live in Oregon and there are a lot of people here aware of these things or if it is just because I am getting older and wiser or maybe a desire to reduce my bills, but I have decided to cancel our trash service!!! We are opting to just have the recycle bin which will save us $45 a month!! How are we going to do this you ask!!! well, here is a list of easy things we are going to do to to reduce our garbage to less than a grocery bag a week!!
1. Use cloth washable grocery bags
2. Use small paper bags (found near the mushrooms) for all the produce we buy, instead of the plastic ones because these are recyclable
3. I went to yellowpagesoptout.com and opted to not have any books delivered, but if they do they are recyclable.
4. We are starting a compost for all kitchen food waste and garden waste. 
5. recycle all paper, plastic containers, glass and metal did you know that even aerosol cans are recyclable?? 
6. Leaving mainly only plastic food wrappers in my trash container! 
Other things that we do to respect our earth that are just fun!!
1. buying from garage sales!!
2. reduce the size of our lawn and plant more edible plants!!
So, if you are thinking of doing the same I encourage you to visit your waste disposal company and print out their recycle chart. I think you will be shocked, as I was, how much can be recycled instead of being thrown away. You may find by making small changes you will be able to do the same thing!!