I was home

I stayed home sick for a few days.  Let me tell you it was the first time I had strep throat and I hope I never get it again!

Well, in between naps, what is a person to do?  I did web searches of course.  Found a few new blogs and garden websites that are interesting.  This site, http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/companion-planting/, has a very handy companion planting guide.  Very handy!  Of course, I had no idea, when we started the vegetable garden last month, that some plants DO NOT grow well next to others.  Like the poor tomatoes that are slowly dieing next to the beets.  They do not play nice with each other.  The above mentioned excel spreadsheet helps you figure out what plants will grow well next to another.  Just click on the drop down menu, select your vegetable, and the list of companions magically appears.  Tomatoes are friends with pepper plants.

Since we know what plants will play nice with each other, why not plan out the garden?  That is where this website come in handy, http://www.growveg.com/Default.aspx.  It is so basic a program, it's perfect.  It is pre-programed with each vegetables spacing needs.  Just decide what size garden you will make, and plug in all the plants.  Here is a sample garden from Grow Veg.

Sample White House Vegetable Garden

So, I decided to work on the vegetable garden we created on the side of the house.  The size is 4ft wide up against the neighbor's fence and then follows the length of the house.  The issue is that 4ft is a little long to reach across and work on, especially for a child.

The Veggie garden currently

After inputting the dimensions of the garden into Grow Veg program, I placed the plants we currently have growing.  We need to get to the veggies in the back, and since I can't move the fence, lets add some paths.

Here are some paths.

The garden looks very sparse now.  You can see a lot of wasted space between the house and the garden.  Let's do more planning.

The final (Maybe)

The garden is expanded a little and I added some paths.  This should help the offspring get at the plants.  Also, the Grow Veg program has a button for square foot gardening.  I used that to place the vegetables and found I could place more then double the plants.  I am interested in maximizing the planting space, so the square foot gardening method may be what I am looking for.

Wait...why don't the kids and I worry about learning to get the plants growing first, and then work on maximizing.  Two of my great-granddaddies may have been farmers, but they sold the farmer long before I was born.  This is all new stuff to me.  Right now I'll extend the garden and create the paths.  The kids will plant another round of peppers and lettuce.  Soon we will get to eat some yummy vegetables!