My Garden Systems Are Getting Slightly More Sophisticated

The garden overview photo was taken as I began this three-hour tour.

On the left side is a cover crop of clover that I definitely did not plant. That is supposed to be a row of greens, but unfortunately nothing has grown enough for me to distinguish between actual food and the three-leaf version of a leprechaun’s dream.

Why Everything Is Numbered

I have a tendency not to plan things out, which becomes problematic when trying to grow food and medicinal herbs.

So everything is divided into numbered beds. What you don’t see is why they were placed where they were.

The bottom half is all herbs:

• #1 loves water
• #2 likes a moderate amount
• #3 prefers it drier, grows taller, and would otherwise shade the others

The rest is organized by nutrition, water needs, and companion planting.

My Planting Spreadsheet

This spreadsheet tracks:

• frost dates
• indoor starts
• transfer dates
• direct sow timing

I had to start marking completed tasks with little stars because apparently I cannot be trusted to remember what I already did.

Eventually I’ll rewrite it in fountain pen like the rest of the commonplace book, but growing actual food takes priority.

The Commonplace Book

This idea sprouted (yes, I did that intentionally) from a terrible mistake last year: I didn’t know what any of the herbs looked like beyond the seed packet photos.

So I started drawing the herbs and writing what they’re useful for.

I’m doing something similar with vegetables, but without pictures. If I can’t recognize a tomato by now, I clearly have other issues that need immediate attention.

Also, I’m not sure why I decided to write my capital A’s like that. I appear to be passing notes in 7th grade English.

Starts Actually Worked This Year

Last year my starts failed because I made too many mistakes to recover from and ended up buying starts.

This year they germinated.

I’d like that entered into the record.

Improved Trellises

I still haven’t built proper trellises because I refused to ruin my cozy “don’t leave the house” weekend by going to the home improvement store.

Instead:

• I flipped two tomato cages upside down and secured them to fence posts for cucumbers
• I used another tomato cage for pole beans, buried to the first ring

Elegant? No.

Functional? We’ll find out.

Bonus Content

This photo is similar to the previous one, but I believe everyone deserves to see my good boy.