They’re a bit… tall… this year:

I have no idea why they get this tall – they just do.  Super sandy, crappy soil.  No fertilizer.  They just do what they want.  And this year, they’re officially taller than me, per the blurry red-sweatered blob in the background (I’m 5’4″/164 cm).

With a bunch of help by our friend Purk, the garden is in the ground and ready to start growing. I’m very happy and excited to see how it goes.

I came up with a design for the garden on the train earlier this week – I wanted something a bit more interesting visually than garden rows, and this just came to mind once Erich and I had talked about using our wedding arbor as the support for the climbing peas.

This year we only had the funds to create half of the boxes – so it’s a bit lopsided right now. We’ll finish the design with two identical boxes mirroring the ones in right now:

More detailed photos of each individual bed are on my Flickr page.

So yes, I’m very happy. I’ll be even more excited to see the design finished next year – but in the meantime, I have a bunch of veggie plants that will be growing… woo hoo!

An update first on my earlier post this week – I’m still stressed, but feeling a little better on things (at least I feel like I’ve been “heard” by various people). I’ve talked to Erich, I’ve talked to one of my managers. So hopefully, things will get a bit better.

One big thing is off of my “um… yeah, this needs to happen!” list. Erich got the landscaping guys out to remove the gigantic bush-turned-tree in the corner of our yard. I will miss the wonderful smell of the flowers it produced in the summer (I think it was a jasmine or something similar… really, really nice!), but it was just too damn big and overgrown. Plus, it’s the ideal corner of our yard for a garden – tons of sunlight and nice and even ground. It’s already protected on two sides, so if we need to build a protective fence (probably a given at some point), it will be easier to enclose.

So here’s how it looked this morning (thanks to my husband’s cell phone):

And here it is from the same angle later in the morning, once cleared:

Amazing difference, eh? The garden is going to be pretty big. We’re measuring by the fence poles in the chainlink – two poles wide by two poles long (about 20×20 feet). So essentially – that entire corner. I’m allowing for path space in that measurement. Still unsure how I’m going to configure the boxes. At least some of the planting will be done in boxes this year (definitely in the area where the stump was). Erich said that the landscapers are grinding the stump down now below ground level, which will be good. A few of the plants may be grown straight in the ground. I’m not sure which yet – we’re going to lay out the design of the garden tonight. Our friend is bringing a rototiller, which will help considerably.

One plan we do have is to use our wedding arbor as a support in the garden, since we’re currently not using it for anything and it’s just sitting in the garage. It’s vinyl, so easy enough to move again later if need-be. The plan right now is to use it for peas. They won’t grow all the way over it, but they’ll have plenty of space TO climb with the arbor. Plus, it would be pretty.

So my final layout design is probably going to be based on the arbor – either having the arbor as the entrance TO the garden, or have the arbor in the middle with four planter boxes around it, making a sort of square. I’d like to give the garden a bit of a designed feel, even if it is just a backyard veggie garden.

That black box is our compost bin, btw. We have at least some compost ready in it at the bottom – the top’s definitely not ready, though.

Cannot wait to plant on Sunday – so excited!

ETA: Erich just sent the final photo. Stump is gone. Matt (our housemate) is checking things out in the photo.

Mother’s Day Weekend in Rhode Island has two special events – celebrating Mom, of course, and also celebrating gardening.  This year I get to celebrate both of them together in person – my mom and her boyfriend, Richard, are up for the weekend.

We got up fairly early this morning and headed down to the University of Rhode Island’s East Farm, where the annual Spring Festival was held.

Last year, we bought three tomato plants which did amazingly well – not only were they unscathed by the blight that killed off a bunch of the crop across New England, but we managed to get at least 30 pounds of tomatoes by season end. I grew them in the Earth Boxes I’ve obtained from Erich’s parents over the years, and they did great… with one problem. They got so top heavy that they kept falling over with strong winds.

We decided that this year we’ll put in an actual garden – we have a great sunny spot in the back of the yard that needs something anyway. Might as well go for it and plant food! So a few weeks ago we started listing the things we’d like to plant, and then we went searching at the festival today. The festival plants are started in the university greenhouses in February, then sold off at about $3 a piece. Many of them are 8-12 inches tall already, and everything looks wonderful. They have a ton of different heirlooms. We probably went a bit too crazy with tomatoes, but really – is there anything wrong with that?

So here’s today’s haul (all for about $110!):

10 tomato plants, all different varieties, a Chinese giant bell pepper (sweet heirloom pepper), a jalepeno, another spicy pepper for chili, scallions, leeks, carrots, peas, cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, a varity of herbs, plus a few ornamental plants for the yard.

Can. Not. Wait. to get started next weekend.