Gardening 2013 By: Stella

Hello Everyone!
Welcome to our gardening post for 2013.  I have a slideshow at the end with pictures, but first I'll share a little bit of our research with you.

 Above is all our plants.
I know it doesn't look like much in the picture, but the list is a little bigger ;)

Bug Repelling Flowers:

4 (6-pack) marigolds      (Plant these by the tomatoes mainly and scatter the rest)

2 (6-pack) petunias

2 (6-pack) impatiens

1 (tub) Begonia               (Plant by the broccoli/DON'T plant by the cucumbers)

1 pack sunflowers

Herbs:

1 parsley (6-pack)

1 dill (6-pack)

1 sage (tub)

3 italian basils (tubs)

1 rosemary (tub)

1 thyme (tub)

1 garlic chives (tub)

2 sage (seeds+tub)

1 cilantro (tub)

1 oregano (tub)

Tomatoes:

2 celebrity (6-pack)

1 roma (6-pack)

1 sungold (tub)

1 cherry-grape (tub)

Squash:

1 yellow (6-pack)

1 winter/butternut (6-pack)

1 zucchini (6-pack)

Pepper:

1 ace (6-pack)

1 golden summer (6-pack)

Lettuce:

1 ruby red (6-pack)

3 lettuce (6-pack)

3 mesclun seed packets

2 Salad blend lettuce packets

Beans:  (plant by potatoes)

1 purple seed packet

1 yellow seed packet

1 green seed packet

Misc:

2 cukes (6-packet)

1 broccoli (6-packet)

1 cauliflower (6-packet)

1 lb. Yukon gold seed potatoes

1 seed pack of peas

3 6-pack of flowers (whatever type we think is prettiest ;P ) for the front of the house

 It took a total of five hours! That includes tilling, weeding, planting and watering.

Here is a list of supplies:

5 bags mulch for the front/4 bags of mulch for the fence areas/2 bags mulch by garden (11 total)

1 bale hay

2 bags moo mix

2 large canvas bags for lettuce

Plastic flower pots

Landscapers’ canvas and staples

Tomato cages

Garden stakes

Manure

Compost

Gas for tiller

(and the above plants)

Want to know how to plant potatoes? Look no further! Here is a simple, quick way to grow potatoes:

Choose egg size tubers or cut larger potatoes into two or three seed pieces, each with an "eye" or sprout. Make cuts the day before planting and let the cut surfaces dry or "heal" at room temperature overnight.

Loose, well-drained soil with a generous amount of organic material is ideal for potatoes. Garden compost makes an excellent soil amendment to mix in after deep digging. Compost keeps the freshly fluffed up soil from recompacting. Decide on the length of your row and dig a trench four inches deep and 12 inches wide.

Plant potatoes four-to-six weeks before the last frost which means April in the Denver area. Place seed pieces in the trench with the cut side down or orient whole potatoes with the eye facing up. Push seed one-half inch into the loose soil in the bottom of the trench and space 12 inches apart.

Fill the trench with six inches of clean, weed-free straw -- not dirt. As potato plants emerge, add another four-to-six inches of straw. Water as needed to keep the straw evenly moist, but not soggy. Do not overwater.

Straw promotes healthy plant growth, smothers weeds and protects tubers from turning green in the sunlight. The straw also acts as a mulch to keep the soil moist.

 You'll be ready to harvest in the fall.  To do so, simply reach into the straw and pull out your potatoes!

We had a lot of fun gardening as you can see from the slideshow below.  We will post more pictures soon of the plants when they're developed a bit more ;)

Click here to go to slideshow