These poor little guys were just overflowing in their tiny little planter. And even though we had to wait a week after actually getting the garden built (stupid freezing temperatures in May), we finally got them in!
They look so tiny in there! One of the nice things about the planter we bought was that the containers are biodegradable, so we were able to just break the sections apart and plant them, no digging the plants up or uprooting them necessary. That's why you see some little chunks of brown scattered throughout the garden; we really didn't get too precise about burying them. In addition to the bell pepper, tomato, green onion, broccoli, and winter squash that we started in the planters, we added summer squash, zucchini, spinach, and green bean to our planted garden. Oh, and we divided the garden into square foot quadrants to make the planting process a little easier, especially since we are pretty clueless about spacing and everything else (hence the twine--although it'll be gone soon as the plants start to take off). We also made sure that we had a few "empty" quadrants so that I'd be able to get into the middle of the garden to pull weeds.
Which, after just over a week, haven't been too bad! Our biggest "weed" right now is actually grass; as you've been able to see, we planted over a previously seeded portion of our lawn. We did uproot and till (as best we could) the plot for our garden, but then we left some of the grass/soil chunks under the topsoil we added because I read that the plants can get good nutrients as the grass decomposes. Well, apparently all of the grass didn't get the memo to die. Not the biggest deal though. And I've learned that it's actually easiest to weed shortly after it rains because the soil tends to be a little looser and softer and it's easier to get the weeds by the roots. It's naturally a little muddier as well, but that's what gardening gloves are for!
We've also had some serious plant growth in the week and a half since we planted. The broccoli have gone crazy since being transplanted, as has one of the green onion plants (we're afraid that we lost the other one; but we did plant a few more from seed to increase the crop just in case). We also had a tomato plant that was struggling with the move, and after the violent storms that whipped through here last night, I don't think it'll pull through. The other three are thriving though. And some of our new plantings are already sprouting--we've got definite seedlings from both the summer squash and zucchini, and I'm pretty sure the majority of our spinach plants are coming up (although they look borderline like sprouting grass, so I'm a little wary. But they are sprouting right where we planted, which is definitely a good sign). And I think we have progress from the green beans, although the seedlings look different from quadrant to quadrant, which makes me believe that I actually have a weed masquerading as a green bean plant. But since I know nothing, I'm letting them both grow for now! Once I'm confident what are our plants and what are weeds, I'm going to take my camera out and get close ups of all of them so I can introduce them to you. Mostly because I'm actually seriously impressed by the progress this whole adventure is making--I think it's officially time to take "Plant a Garden" off our 101 in 1001 list!
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