Victory Garden - Before

Here is a picture of how most of the plots at the victory garden look when you first receive them:

Groundhog Captured!

Last year, a good portion of the garden was wrecked by a groundhog who thwarted every effort to keep him out of the garden. Today, my neighbor mentioned he caught and re-located a groundhog. I've buried the fence in the ground this year, but hopefully that was the same one and I'll have one less problem to worry about this year.

Early Lettuce

Straw mulch surrounds the early lettuce.

Victory Garden - Part II

A few weeks back I mentioned that towns will often set aside space for community gardens.  Our town opened up the application process for first time applicants the first week of March.  We applied for and got two plots.  The cost is $30 per plot for the entire season.  The plots themselves are fairly large and it looks like I've increased my total space by threefold. 

The gardens themselves are not too far from the house and the plan is to ride bikes there during the warm months to maintain them.  The plan is keep the fast growing crops, like cucumbers, in the home garden and the slower crops, like melons, in the town garden.

It is funny to note that there is a caution in the rules regarding anyone caught growing illegal drugs will both lose their garden plot and be prosecuted given that the land is owned by the town and the application form is submitted at the town hall.

Putting Up The Fence

Last year, we had a problem with a ground hog. That was the first time we had a serious problem in the vegetable garden as the rabbits are usually content with the flower bed. We tried several things including a rock boarder along the base of the fence, fox urine, and a ground hog repellant that killed more plants than anything else, but he ended up ruining a substantial part of the crop.

The garden itself is surrounded by two deep railroad ties. The fence I use is just 3 foot chicken wire that I got at the Home Depot. I've dug a trench about a foot deep around the perimeter and buried about the bottom foot of the fence. This gives me about a foot below the ground and three feed above the ground which will hopefully be enough to limit going both over and under the fence.

The First Transplants of Spring

We stopped by the nursery and the first transplants of spring were out. Lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, red onions, and cauliflower are all a little bit more cold tolerant and can be put out in the earliest in the spring. The winter has been the strongest in several years and I don't think we are past the last frost yet, but we got some lettuce, cabbage and broccoli all the same.

Vertical Apartment Garden

People often comment to me that they do not have enough space to grow a garden.

Here's a clever use of vertical space in an apartment. An old bookcase set next to a window gives space both horizontally and vertically and the varieties selected lend themselves to this type of set up. Most of the types are either short plants or, in the case of the peas, vines which can grow down the length of the bookcase. Another nice feature of this set up is that if you decide you are not getting enough / too much sun, you can move the garden to another window.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35952825@N02/sets/72157614654796077/