Blue Jar Garden and DIY crafts

I am so excited to share our garden! My mom and brother were visiting for spring break. My mom helped me build, fill, and prepare the garden beds! After 4 re-designs, many trips to several stores, sunshine and rain, the garden is ready! After some input from neighbors, we ended up building 4 – 4 foot by 8 foot beds with 2 x 6 x 8 pieces of lumber. Two beds are 12 inches tall and two beds are 6 inches tall. I am using the “square foot gardening” method and am pretty excited about getting plants in the ground! It isn’t quite warm enough yet to plant, but the beds are ready! I am already thinking of things to do next year, but that’ll be for another time.

On the left, we have, what I am calling, the north, west, east and corn beds. On the right is a closer up of the “corn bed”. I still have things to work on, like the pathway, but I’m still excited.

The “north” bed is for peas, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, carrots, radishes, Blue Lake green beans and Roma Italian green beans.

The “west” bed is for beefsteak tomatoes, big boy tomatoes, early girl tomatoes, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, jelly bean tomatoes, strawberries, onions, garlic, parsley, cilantro and basil.

The “east” bed is for bell peppers, sweet peppers, many varieties of hot peppers, okra and turnips.

The “corn” bed is for 3 varieties of corn, 2 varieties of zucchini, butternut squash and pumpkins.

I have also planted two raspberry bushes and two blackberry bushes. Flowers and other herbs will be planted in containers and places around the beds.

Two weeks ago I started several seeds indoors, a storage closet that is heated in a small four-shelved greenhouse. I started all the cucumbers, tomatoes, squashes, peppers, and flowers. They came up quickly and nicely! We will start planting seeds and starts in the garden next weekend, after the last frost date is next week.

There are still things to do, like put together my pest fence and bird netting, and work on composting, but overall, I am happy with where things are on my timeline.

Believe it or not, I wanted to start small this year. This is my first year gardening on my own. I help my mom last year and wanted to test things before going big. All the things I’m planning on growing are things we eat. There are many things that I’m not ready to take on just yet, like potatoes and lettuces. I am also going to be canning, freezing, and preserving come harvest time. We are expecting our third child in August, so we will see how all these things go.

Why “Blue Jar Garden”? Honestly, I found some cute jars at a store that I thought would be cute as bug candles in the garden. Then I found these cute little guys! They’re mini torches!

Until next time, probably next weekend after planting and notes are taken! I will also be sharing my new electric mixer adventures! I got a new one with many attachments that I cannot wait to use!

Thanks for reading As Home As Possible, Blue Jar Garden! ~Amanda

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