A garden that finally looks like a garden!

Success!!! After a very long but productive weekend the garden has taken shape and vegetables have been planted! I could not be happier about how it has turned out. I will walk you through our recent progress with photos...

The 3-4x4 raised beds & perimeter frame are in place

Laying down the weed blocking fabric & securing it with fabric pegs

Mel's Mix: 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost (left to right)

Mel's mix - mixed; wood chips cover the ground

A raised bed - filled with Mel's Mix

A complete box - with lath boards to divide the bed into square feet (for easy plant/seed calculations)

Completed Box #1 with trellis (made from conduit pipes and nylon trellis netting)

Completed Box #2

Completed Box #3 with trellis

The big picture

Lupin (left) & Dahlia (right) for the flower beds along the perimeter

So, what have I planted so far?

Box 1

• Green Bean - Blue Lake Bush Bean (7)
• Cucumber - Diva (2)
• Cucumber - Burpless Supreme (2)
• Lettuce - Head (3)
• Marigold (6)

Box 2

• Tomato - Sweet 100s (2)
• Tomato - Jet Star (1)
• Tomato - Early Girl (1)
• Sweet Basil (2)
• Marigold (6)

Box 3

• Squash - ? (4)
• Melon - Organic Hale's Best (1)
  
• Pumpkin - Howden (1)
  
• Pepper - Red Beauty (1)
• Pepper - Mandarin Hybrid (1)
• Marigold (6)

Containers

• Mint - Spearmint (1)
• Lemon Balm (1)

Still to plant (from seed):

• Green Bean - Roma II
• Cabbage - Earliana
• Cabbage - Red Acre
• Spinach - Salad Fresh Hybrid
  
• Lettuce - Salad Bowl
• Lettuce - Parris Island (Romaine)
  
• Pea - Sugar Snap
• Radish - Crimson Giant
• Carrot - Short 'n Sweet

A New Fence!

My garden has a new fence!! Thanks to my wonderful boyfriend, Yves, the new fence and gate were finished late Wednesday night! Night you say?? Yes, we were able to work in the garden until 10pm! I guess you know you live in the city when there is enough artificial light for you to work that late! It also helped that the lights of Fenway Park were on as the Red Sox-Yankees game was still in play.

I am not sure what is happening with the weather lately in New England but it is the pits - and frustrating to an anxious gardener! It has averaged 60 degrees and with rain almost every day. Hopefully the sun will appear tomorrow. Luckily, I have Fridays off during the summer and used today to pick up more supplies, including the hard to find vermiculite! Yves and I also finished getting lumber to build a raised bed that will extend around the perimeter. This will be an on-going project that will one day be filled with a mix of annuals and perennials.

Tonight we leveled the garden in preparation to lay down the weed blocking fabric. We also started building the 4x4 raised beds as tomorrow should be the day for PLANTING! Since it is getting late to start most vegetables from seed, I will be buying starter plants for most of my veggies. I still have to work out exactly what I will be planting and where it will go, but should have it ready to go for tomorrow when I PLANT!! Can you tell that I am excited?? For now, here is my plot layout to give you a general idea of how it will look!

Can you see the difference?

I hope so! Today was a tough but productive day in the garden. I spent three hours weeding and getting the plot clean. Today's battle was with two invasive species: multiflora roses and an invasive, unidentified vine. I am keeping the roses for the most part, but tried to prune them back a little. The vine definitely needs to go, but I can't access the root system for some so I will just have to keep an eye on it.

I met a few more fellow gardeners today, as the plot across from me is now 'occupied.' They had the horrible task of removing a large tree stump from the middle of the plot. I guess my weeds don't seem that bad! They are also having to re-build the fence, which is a project on my To-Do list, but at least mine is still standing! Another gardener came by surprised I was taking this plot on and stated, "nobody has ever had success in this garden." Well, darn-it if I am going to prove him wrong! It makes me very happy to have planned on raised beds from the start, as he stated that the two main reasons the plot has not been successful are 1) water run-off 2) bad soil.

I finally found a garden supply company (Griffin Greenhouse and Nursery Supply) who carries coarse vermiculite at a very reasonable price - however, they are currently out of stock! Hopefully it will be available mid-week, which will mean that I need to start building my raised beds and make my final calculations so I can plant!!!

Weeding: Day Two

I finally got back into the garden to continue weeding. Note the word "continue" and not "finish"...as I knew that I would still need more time after tonight! Anyway, I made progress in the hour and a half before it got dark. The ground was very dry, but luckily the weeds still came out very easily. The gardens were pretty quiet, although I tuned out the world by listening to tunes on my iPod. I really would love to know how long the plot has been 'empty' as - in my mind - it is so overgrown! Hopefully I will some day meet my neighbor gardeners! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera to document my progress. I had my cell phone with me but as expected the quality is not great. I still have a lot of finalizing to do and I am growing very anxious to start planting!! One issue I am having is trying to locate vermiculite, one of the three components of Mel's Mix. I have made a dozen calls and have only found two places with the small bags - which would be very expensive - compared to finding the 4 cubic feet bags! Hopefully I will find it soon!!

Updated progress...just one corner & the back with all the roses & vines to deal with!

Sunset in the FVG

The Worst Thing About Gardening

The rain stopped long enough for me to enter my garden for the first time tonight!! A busy week kept me away from my first and worst task...weeding! I was able to take inventory of what had been left by the previous gardener. There wasn't much aside from some random pieces of wood, some trash, an old rake and a broken hose. I also tried to get a more accurate measurement so I could finalize my garden plan. However, there were still too many weeds in the way - but my current estimate is 31' x 12' - a very good size! If forgot to bring a compass so I could figure out the directionals, which I need to plan my layout. Taller crops should be on the northern side of a garden so they don't shade the rest of the crops. Fortunately, the map on www.fenwayvictorygardens.com fortunately had the compass rose.

I weeded for about an hour and a half - until it got dark - getting through about two thirds of the garden. Luckily most of the weeds came up easily but they seemed to never end! The gardens were pretty quiet but I had a single chickadee kept me company.

Post weeding...with still more to do!

All the weeds I pulled from my garden - three wheelbarrows full!

Next on my to-do list:

1. Finish weeding (of course)
2. Complete garden plan
   
3. Cover entire garden with a weed blocking fabric
4. Build and assemble raised beds
5. Create "Mel's Mix" (mix of compost, peat moss & vermiculite)
6. Buy plants & seeds
7. PLANT
8. Fence repairs