Next year things are going to be different for our garden. Every year I have planted pretty much the same things. Beans, corn, tomatoes, a few squash plants, a few cucumber plants, and if I felt froggy, I would plant some beats or melons. This year, like all the other years, our garden is over run by weeds. Mostly because it's hot and I don't want to go and pull weeds. So I've been trying to come up with a solution on how I can get a better garden and more food. I just might have come up with a solution. Raised beds and containers.
Not just raised beds in the garden, NO! Raised beds RIGHT OUTSIDE MY DOOR! I have an old metal container that I put a tomato plant in this year. I LOVE going out and watering it and weeding it. Then I set in my chair and I admire it. I keep watch to see if there are any bugs on it. I make sure to check the color of the tomatoes more than twice a day. I almost treat it better than my husband. hehehe
So I got to wondering why don't I just "move " my garden to in front of my door? Now, I'm not talking right in front of my door. You won't have to step over beans to get into the house. I'm talking about being able to see it from my door. Our garden that we use now is up on the hill with a fence around it. (stupid deer) The beans were ate by the rabbits(stupid rabbits), and NOW the rabbits are eating my tomatoes!(Double on the stupid rabbits) But, they aren't eating my tomatoes in front of the house!
As I get older,(not that I'm old) I start to "know" myself better. And, I realize that "Myself" is lazy. lol! Well, maybe lazy isn't the word for it. I know that if I lose interest in something, I wont follow up on it. With the vegetable plants being in my face everyday, I'll check on them. I'll make sure they are weeded, I'll make sure they have water, and I'll make sure the rabbits won't eat them. I've heard that gardening in containers can produce more. I'll guess I'll find out.
Another thing that I'm going to be doing different next year is trying different types of veggies. I'm already checking out different things to grow. Different types of beans, different melons, different tomatoes, all kinds of things that I would never have thought about in my big "normal" garden. I want to plant garlic this fall. I've NEVER planted garlic before. I might even try different types of garlic. I know, I'm a big risk taker. :) I'm going to plant onions too. Oh, and research how to keep them all winter. We use a lot of onions and I would like to provide them from our garden instead of going to the grocery store.
One thing that I promised myself for this coming year though, is to not overwhelm myself on getting it all done at once. I know myself enough to know that if I get overwhelmed, I will quit in frustration. So I'm just going to do it slow. I mean, I still will have the other garden up on the hill. I want to plant the corn and maybe some watermelon and such up there. But I want to see how raised beds and container gardening will benefit my lazy way of life. lol
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, a new (lazy) direction.
7 comments:
I love that idea, that sounds like something that would work for me as well.
We have raised beds, but not the kind I would like. We went to a friends house and his raised beds are at waist level because he has a bad back. I told The Husband, I want my beds like that...he said ok. I'm still waiting for the beds to be raised higher. someday I hope.
Hugs~Fel~
We have raised beds not to far from our back door and pots right at the door. It's great because I will go out at night and early in the morning to water. I don't have to walk a distance. I'm not lazy, just want convenience!!! Good luck on the raised beds and pots next year :-)
Felinae....I have been bugging the Hubby to get mine done forever!!! I just decided I'm gonna use what I can.
Sandy....I agree!!! Maybe I should say that I just like convenience. lol
ooooooooooooo, goody, I can't WAIT to see!!
Raised beds close to the house is definitely the way to go if you have the room and a sunny location! We lived in the suburbs of Portland OR for 4 years and had many raised beds in our backyard. They definitely got more attention than the garden we have now in the country away from our house. My husband read a lot about maximizing space with square foot gardening and had good success with it. Here's a link to my blog about that way of gardening and some helpful tools he made: http://simplyresourceful.blogspot.com/2011/05/square-foot-gardening.html
We have raised beds, so no bending. Much better for our backs. Now tht I'm not well anymore, long story, this is the only way I can still grow some things. You will be surprised how much you can grow and the abbundance of the harvest.
Raised beds are awesome. Garlic and onion are easy additions if you're not expecting HUGE production, especially in raised beds.
I tend to plant mine and forget about them.
My all-time favorite trick for encouraging myself to weed is to put the goat pen next to the garden. Garden gets one side fenced in and the goat's "Pleeeeeaaaasssseee won't you feed us?!?! We're STARVING." generally gets them a few handfuls of weeds whenever I go out to check on them. The chickens have the same effect, they're just not as cute about it.
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