Summer Garden

I can’t believe it is time to be thinking about my summer garden! I am so excited this year because I *think* we are going to try and actually plant some things in the ground. I’m not really sure how it will go of course because I haven’t ever planted a garden in the ground, I’m more of a container girl  I mean, who wouldn’t like container gardening? There is no weeding involved!

The problems I am facing:

1. There is a very large tree on the side of our yard which has very large roots about a quarter of the way across the yard.
2. On the exact opposite side of the tree is where the city sewer lines are. These have been dug up twice in the past 5 years due to bad pipes…

Since I am dealing with about .2 acres of total yard…I am left with the middle which has a stump of an old apple tree (which the owner cut down right before we bought the house, dangit). I’m thinking that due to the roots of that big tree I am going to need to do raised beds and have lots of compost. Again I have no idea how to actually garden, so any ideas would be helpful.

I am pretty sure I am still going to do container gardening. I think that I will end up making two raised beds, one where I plant in the ground. The other I am going to put plywood over and use as a platform for my containers. The reason the containers will be on the ground instead of on my lovely deck, is that once we rent the apartment (if we ever rent the apartment), that deck will be the entrance for the tenant, and I can’t picture them wanting my tomatoes crawling up their entryway 

I have kind of branched out a bit from my typical tomatoes/peppers/cukes. This year I am also planting:

Chinese Cabbage
Spaghetti Squash
Flour Corn
Acorn Squash
Pie Pumpkins
Watermelon
Cantaloupe

I am really excited though. I have no idea if any of this stuff will actually grow well. But, if it does, well I will be incredibly happy. I’m not completely sure what I can do with flour corn, I have no grain grinder, but the thought of having ground corn flour for tortillas or nachos and my homemade salsa…mmm…I can’t wait! I have also never done anything with fruit, but this seemed like as good a time as any to try it.

My concern is of the woodchuck family that lives down the street at my mom’s. I am hoping that my wonderful husband will be able to build some type of enclosure so that I don’t have to worry about them getting into my plants. And I’m also thinking about trying to put something over the plants as well so the 100’s of crows that we have flying around don’t eat everything. Does anyone have any experience with crows? I mean, is the scarecrow the way to go?

So I am crossing my fingers on this whole garden thing. Of course, I am doing the CSA again with Longmeadow Farm. I was really pleased with it last year, and they have such a wonderful selection. I may have veg coming out of my ears come August…wouldn’t that be heavenly!

My plan is to start some seeds indoors this year as well, something I have never tried. I may need my mom’s help on this since she was a master gardener back in the day. And since she was recently laid off (one of the major stresses in my life at the moment) she may have plenty of time to help me get this garden started! But, if anyone has any tips on starting a garden, please send them my way. I didn’t even prep the area in the fall (something about having a 4 month old kind of got in the way). I am excited though, and I hear enthusiasm is one of the most important ingredients to a successful garden ;-)