The Garden is Planted!

Jason and I finished planting the garden last weekend. We are so happy to have everything in the ground. We planned and prepared for several weeks and then worked for a couple of more to get to this point. It is nice to have the beds completed and now we get to sit back and watch the darlings grow! Well, not really sit back--there is still more work to be done. And let's not forget weeding.

Each garden bed is planted with both vegetables and herbs as well as some marigolds. I organized the plant selection within each bed to have complementary plants together. Plus, we mixed in the herbs and marigolds to help keep the insects away. The varying scents should keep the insects confused and away from the plants. That's the theory anyway.

Here we have our tomatoes and peppers planted mixed in with basil, oregano, and rosemary. There are several different varieties of tomatoes including Early Girl, Celebrity, Sweet 100, Mountain Spring, Roma and different heirlooms. I prefer the smaller fruited tomatoes which is why most of the plants chosen produce a tomato about 10 ounces. I'm not sure what the heirlooms will bring, so that will be a garden surprise. Also planted is our peppers. This year we wanted jalapeno and bell peppers. We love to cook with both and Jason really likes stuffed peppers. As for the herbs, we have Tuscan Blue and Hardy Hill rosemary, Italian and Greek oregano, and Sweet, Purple and African Blue Basil. We planted the basil among the tomatoes as they are supposed to fare well together.


This bed contains our yellow squash and zucchini. We have both crooked and straight neck squash. The nasturtiums are planted with these because they are said to deter squash bugs. Even if it doesn't work they are beautiful flowers. Also in this bed, we planted red onion seeds and garlic bulbs. The garlic is normally planted in fall, but I thought what harm could it do to plant it? It will either grow or it won't. We'll have to wait and see. I went out on a limb with one Black Diamond watermelon and one cantaloupe plant. The vines may not have enough space to grow in the beds, but we'll try them too.


Our third bed contains our cucumber, which is waiting for a trellis to climb on. It also has okra, black eye peas and lima beans planted. I planted rue among the peas and the okra. The rue should help keep the japanese beetles away. I really hope they work. The japanese beetles may look like little June bugs, but they sure aren't as welcome here. They aren't as much fun as a June bug either.


The last bed has our green bean teepees. We planted Kentucky Wonder pole beans. This is what my parents have always planted in their garden and they do well. Next to the green beans is short row of sugar snap peas and several rows of carrots. We put the sage in this bed too. Marigolds are scattered throughout the other plants. Hopefully the marigolds will help deter insects too. After all, with being an organic garden we can't use pesticides. I'd rather use natural means to tell them to "bug off."

Now that we have it all arranged and in the ground, we just have to wait for the sprouts to appear. I've already had to do a little weeding and of course watering, but that's our quality time together. Jason laughs because I talk to the plants, but they need encouraging words and to know that we want them to be happy here. A happy garden should be a well producing garden!