Garden Bed Planning

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Even though we still have snow on the ground here in MN, we’re getting ready for spring and summer!

Last year was our first official year we did a garden bed at our home. Greyson was three and I loved how much he wanted to be involved and teaching him about where our food comes from was priceless. It was so cool to watch how much he not only loved to care of it but also eat his fruits and vegetables that he had grown. Nothing made me happier than when we’d go outside and another cantaloup or pepper had grown and to see how excited he would get! It’s been a super cool experience and we can’t wait to do it again this year!

We learned a lot last year, some of our plants thrived, while some of them died immediately, so we’re taking what we learned from last year and trying a few new things out this year. One of which is starting our planting indoors a few weeks before we move them outside.

Last year we grew tomatoes, bell peppers, corn, cilantro, mint, thyme, oregano, strawberries, and cantaloupe. We never saw one strawberry and our corn didn’t grow well, but it still grew, otherwise everything else did pretty well.

We also didn’t really have a rhyme or reason for where we put things last year, so the first thing we’re doing this year is designing out our bed and where we’re going to put what.

Lessons Learned

Here’s a few of the lessons learned from our first garden experience last  year.

• Label everything
• Group items together and do crop rotation
• Put larger items in back, smaller up front
• Create shade for some
• Plant indoors earlier
• Water everyday

I think the two biggest things that we realized is some of the items we planted need shade, whereas our garden bed is in direct sunlight all day long. This year we’re going to create a shady spot for some of the herbs or vegetables that can’t bake in the sun. We also didn’t label anything, so we weren’t too sure what was where once we planted and I think we planted too late in the game outdoors as we didn’t get the reap the benefits of our garden until later in the summer. We also had no rhyme or reason for where we put what so some items like our mint was everywhere and the vines from our cantaloupe. So this year we are going to group such as our root crops, herbs, and our few different types of lettuce.

Spinach, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, squash, peppers, sage, chives, green beans, watermelon, carrots, parsley, basil, cilantro, pumpkins and cantaloupe are all on our list for this year.

Now that Greyson and I got them all planted inside, so they can start planting their roots next up is getting our garden bed all cleaned up. We got a few different kinds of spray paint color’s picked out and now it’s time to get to work!