I LOVE Spring Break! A week away from work and it feels like I might catch up on a few outstanding projects.... Yeah right! Really just a chance to be lazy!!I have wanted to plan a garden for years but never wanted to put in the work to get it done. I decided to stay in Phoenix for S. B. so it was time to 'Just Do It'! The weather is perfect in March and no one was visiting this year so I definitely had the time. Some time back in January, I asked Jeff a few questions about his garden from last year. He was very excited to talk about it and was planning to plant again the week of Spring Break. We even arranged to share the cost of the rototiller rental since he did not need it for the full time and we could take care of my plot as well.
I bought 3 bags of organic potting soil at Whole Foods over the weekend. But I had work to do! I was only using a portion of my backyard for my small garden plot, a little cut-out between the back of the garage and the south block wall. I have desert landscaping so the backyard was all rocks! I started around 10:00 A.M. with tunes and water. I made sure to start in the shaded section and shoveled rocks to another corner of the south wall for 2.5 hours. Man, my arms and back hurt at 1:00 when Geyer called to start the rototilling! There were still errant rocks in the corners and I knew I would try to hurt him if he told me those had to be moved too! We picked up the rototiller at his co-worker's house (did I mention that we got it for FREE?), stopped by Big Lots for more potting soil and headed to the Geyers. Jeff dragged all the bags to his backyard and we spread 4 bags over his plot. He started the rototiller and I picked up old plastic twist ties while I watched how he moved across the rows. We were at his house less than 45 minutes, I believe. We put the rototiller back in his truck and drove to my house. Then it was my turn to move some dirt! I was a little nervous after hauling rocks for hours. We spread the potting soil over the tiny plot and I got to diggin'. It was harder than I imagined and part of the problem was that we kept finding rocks and concrete pieces from the original build 8 years ago. I went over a few times and I think Geyer took pity on me and worked a few rows. Then Jeff had a great idea to use my compost pile and mix it into the freshly turned soil! Boy, did everything smell earthy after that!!
Jeff cleaned the rototiller, back into the truck it went and we returned the rototiller to his co-worker. Then we drove to Baker's Nursery. Just as I was determined to plant an organic garden, Jeff was determined to support a local nursery! I was hopeful that they would carry organic plants and seeds and they did! We looked around, Jeff went on and on and on about tomato plants, and I got to shopping. For starter plants, I bought 4 kinds of peppers (banana, green 'better belle', purple beauty, Thai hot), 3 zucchini squash, 2 tomato, and 1 each of basil, cucumber and parsley. For seeds, I bought carrot, celery, cilantro, green onions, lettuce (mixed greens), sugar snap peas and tomato. Jeff suggested that I let the plants settle in my house overnight, rake the fresh dirt (had to buy a rake at Home Depot!) to even it out and water it that night.
I hiked the next morning so I planted late morning. I read the seed packages, realized that I needed to soak the sugar snap peas overnight so those would have to be planted later, and placed seeds in the south end of the plot as they needed less sun and the starter plants could handle full sun in the north end. Check out the picture of the garden below (minus the sugar snap peas)!
I am so curious what the Purple Beauty Bell Pepper will look and taste like? Yummy for sure!
Next task...
sun shade!! :)
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