Planning the garden

So it’s that time of year when thoughts in a young(ish) gardener’s mind turn to planning the garden.  Since my “veggie garden” space is limited, I also try to sneak some medicinals in a couple planters around the yard, or around the perennials in the other “decorative” gardens, or at the edges of the herb garden.

I’m also hoping to scope out a few medicinal things that are growing at Jess’, aka at “the farm”, to protect and harvest,.  Things like nettles, plantain, comfrey, and if I’m lucky, mullein.  I’d way rather use food and plants to heal and stay healthy, than a pharmacological “solution” provided by traditional medicine.  

So for the plantings – at my house this year we’ll have tomatoes, zucchini, salad greens and turnip in the veggie garden.  Nasturtium will go in the planter beside, it’s a great trap plant, and did you know it’s edible?  I’ll probably pop in a few marigolds as garden protectors, and we’ll see what else I can squeeze in spaces between and around other plants.  I’d like to grow borage, calendula, camomile, yarrow and tulsi, but not sure I will be able to find room for them all.  We also have a blackberry bush planted last year that totally outgrew the little protective cage we built around her.  We’ll have to figure out something else, otherwise the chipmunks and birds will have a blackberry feast and leave none for us!

I’m also hoping we can get some help to build a garden at the farm.  We had a garden there 2 years ago and got some good food from it, but last year it was decided that some topsoil needed to be added to change the slope/fill in a hollow and so no garden happened. Very sad.  So this year, we are hoping for the cooperation required to put a garden in and grow some good food again.

It’s so rewarding to grow food, even if it’s not a lot, and even if it’s in a pot! As you can see, my “veggie garden” is quite small, but still I grow.  If I didn’t have garden space, I’d grow on the balcony/patio.  What are you growing this year?  Do you have space or are you container gardening?

– Beck