HOME TOUR

Spring is almost upon us. I’m eagerly awaiting the 1000+ bulbs I planted in my raised garden beds to start peeking through the soil. If you are local, be on the lookout for a sweet little neighborhood flower cart coming soon. Here is my garden design 2022.

The seedlings are nestled under their grow lights in the mudroom and my plan for our coming year of gardening is ready to share (you can compare it with last year’s plans here). With this year’s plan you’ll notice crop rotation (something I do every year) and a change in some kinds and quantities of vegetables we are growing in order to make room for some more flowers. Our fenced in growing garden is about 18 x 20 feet and has several in ground beds and raised beds. Last year one of our elevated beds collapsed after a torrential downpour so we left it on the ground. Our plan is to lower the other as well, anticipating that it too will fall at some point.

MOVING THE TOMATOES

We had no tomatoes in the garden last year.They were in grow containers on the back deck. We found that they took over so much it was hard to move past them freely and harvesting them was a challenge. I hated how messy our deck looked. Sooo, we’re limiting ourselves to only two kinds of tomatoes (which is taking quite a bit of self control) and growing them back in the garden. Our year one tomato situation was a mess but we had 6+ plants and I think 2 will be sufficient for us. We may try a zucchini on the deck since we have those great self-watering pots.

Moving the vegetables around the yard also helps with the pests. My biggest one is the squash vine borer. I hate these bugs with all my might. Their larvae overwinter in the soil so you want to move around your squash locations each year and turn the soil before planting. We also saw a big reduction in these pests by applying beneficial nematodes this last year. Although expensive, I plan to do that again. This year we’re trialing sunflowers and corn in another corner of the yard.

FLOWERS IN THE GARDEN

We’re growing an entire row of Dahlia tubers inside the garden this year. I’m also trying sweet peas again. I realized I did a couple things wrong last year which made them grow poorly so I’m hoping by pinching them at the appropriate time and putting them out in the garden earlier I’ll see a greater abundance of flowers. We’re also moving the strawberry tower to the berry cage and likely extending the raised beds for more planting space. No matter how hard we try, we can’t keep the chipmunks from eating all the strawberries. Matt’s berry cage is completely critter-proof so in order to actually enjoy the strawberries, we plan to move them there.

CROP ROTATION

I found this site incredibly helpful as we thought about crop rotation in our garden. Every year I keep a log, essentially a gardening journal to document where I plant things and what needs to go where next year. I can’t recommend this enough. My first year gardening I documented when I first started seeing pests, ie squash vine borers or cucumber beetles and was prepared the following year to launch my counter attack. It really doesn’t take long to jot down a couple notes here and there and makes a world of a difference if you’re going to be successful. It’s all trial and error because each yard is so different.

SOURCES FOR SEEDS

I’d say most of my flower seeds come from Floret and the vegetable seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I also have several packets this year from Johnny Seeds. Find sites you love and get on the mailing list. Growing vegetables from scratch is super popular and the seeds do sell out. I hope you’ve enjoyed this peek at our garden design 2022. Are you excited for warmer weather too?