2017: The Year of the Half Garden

This year I didn’t start tomatoes from seed. We didn’t plant peas or lettuce or spinach in the early spring. We were still in the throes of the illness cycle of the endless winter when it was time to plant tomato seeds, we were still trying to find a nanny and get ourselves back together when it was time for spring vegetables. And then when it was time to plant the garden (early May), the weather turned unseasonably cold, temperatures were dipping down into the 30s at night...

We are still going to do a garden this year (because I love it), but I’m downsizing a full garden this year and we are just going to do a half garden in two beds. Hopefully this upcoming weekend now that things are warming back up.

Here’s my half garden plan:

One bed we will buy 6 tomato plants from the nursery, because we love tomatoes in our house. In the other bed I’m going to leave the oregano and thyme herbs where they already are from last year (usually I dig them up and move them as we rotate beds) and plant a basil in between. I also will add a couple rows of zinnias (from seed), cucumbers (from seed) on a trellis and experiment with radish seeds too. This way we get all of our favorites in, plus something fun to try. In this case, something is a lot better than nothing.

Hopefully next year will be different. Matthew will be a year older and able to play by himself or with his brother while I garden. Hopefully we’ll be healthy enough to start seedlings with a grow light. And hopefully I can get a couple more years out of the raised garden beds before we have to replace them (they are starting to rot).