Project 7: Vegetable Garden

In previous years I've had a tomato plant during the spring and summer. It's fun when a batch of tomatoes are ready for picking, and they usually are sweet, juicy, perfect little treats.

And then last year we had a very bad tomato plant experience. We decided to plant it upside-down instead of worrying about staking it. The upside-down hanging tomato plant looked cool, and it did work (water didn't have to fight gravity as much, although the plant kept trying to grow vertically); but, it was a beast to manage when we needed to bring it in during hurricanes, and the tomatoes that the plant produced were horrible. Green, shriveled little things that I refused to eat after tasting briefly.

So, I think I avoided getting that type of tomato plant again this year, but we can also plant any tomato in the ground now, rather than a pot, and that should improve the quality of the fruit.

The first thing to do was to clear a spot in the backyard for the garden. The corner closest to the house made sense, because the fence is completed on either side, and the space is in a southern-ly section of the backyard, but wouldn't be too in the way or out of the way for visiting.

Ripping out the old McVicker plants was easy, and Nate and I quickly decided that a roughly six foot by six foot square would make sense, since it wouldn't be too big, but we could always expand it if needed.

Ripping out all of the other weeds and little grasses that had grown up took some time, but leveling the whole was very taxing.







I picked up three bags of soil (2 cubic feet each), and then we went about spreading it around.



Then Nate and I used the old stepping stones to create a little path through the garden, and also divide it into sections.





Basil and pineapple sage:



Tomato plant:



Jalapeno peppers:



Tools and remnants of the project:



I want to edge the area with rocks like the tree in the front yard when I get the chance. This is a project without end, much like the herb spiral. We left space to plant some okra and arugula later on, and we intend to expand it further down the fence (onto the side of the house) as time goes by. I can see us growing more than just herbs - but it will take time. I sometimes regret not making the herb spiral twice as big, since it's almost 80% full now. Anyway, we have lots of space to do whatever we want in.