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To most people, March Madness means basketball.  For me, it means gardening.  March is when seeds need to get started indoors to be ready for planting later in spring. I’m pouring over seed catalogues, excited by the possibilities.  Should we try melons this year?  Will I be able to keep the rabbits away this time?  (I was so NOT successful at keeping the critters away last year, and they absconded with my whole carrot crop)

The first few years we lived here, we had one spot where we did all our planting.  It’s nestled in the back corner of our (small, suburban) yard, sheltered on three sides by fencing and the shed.  It was safe from tromping toddlers, and everything we planted grew like gangbusters.  But as our family grew, we realized that we wanted to grow the garden.  We wanted to be able to plant more varieties, and put our produce up for winter.  So, we expanded, and the original garden spot became what I affectionately refer to as “The Red Bed” – it’s where we grow all our tomatoes. Here’s the Red Bed last July:

It’s about 5′ x 11′, and gets a fresh helping of compost every spring. We turnt he compost in, then cover with wet newspaper and salt hay. We n-e-v-e-r have to weed this bed, because of the newspaper and hay. It rocks. In the picture above, the row closest to shed is brandwines, middle is cherries, grapes and romas, and the row closest to the fence is romas and amish paste. I just used the last of the tomatoes we put up from the garden last year, so I’m reeeeeeeeeeeally ready to get back out in the dirt and get growing!

Last spring, we added two new beds. After going back and forth on the best way to use the space we had, I decided to go with a Square Foot Garden. Two 4′ by 6′ beds, divided into a grid of 1′ squares. The Hubster built the boxes for the beds quickly one Saturday morning, and then got all fancy by surrounding it with some lava rocks. We filled the beds with a mix of our compost, peat moss and vermiculite. Here’s what it looked like the weekend after, when I’d planted a bit.

I cannot tell you how well everything grew in these beds. We planted several kinds of peppers, strawberries, lettuces, tomatoes, cukes, peas, green beans and several herbs. No chemical fertilizers, just our compost, and this is what it looked like in late July:

The yield from these two garden spaces was well over 150 pounds of produce. We had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with – and that was AFTER I’d canned salsa, barbecue sauce, and spaghetti sauce. We’re enjoying some relish now that is from our crop last year. We had pickled green beans with dinner last night that I canned back in August. It’s most definitely the best garden we ever had. And I can’t wait to do it all again this year!

So, what are your plans for a garden this year?