Planting Broccoli, Cauliflower & Carrots

Last night (April 29th) we got out in the garden and were able to plant!  Its always exciting when you have more plants and seeds going into your raised beds.  I had spent the week before slowly hardening off the broccoli and cauliflower plants we had started from seed.   It was also time to get the carrot seeds in the ground.  We decided to split up the work and my husband planted the carrot seeds while I planted the broccoli and cauliflower. 

Bed #3  Onions & Peas growing well. Time to add the carrots!

Our second year gardening (in a 4 x 4 space) I attempted to grow carrots.  The rabbits nibbled through my plastic chicken wire fence and mowed down the carrots before they had a chance to get through the first month.  This year we have decided to try again and my husband read up on some important tips to make sure you have a great crop of carrots. 

 

Step 1: Loosen up the soil

Step 2: Add Bone Meal

Bone Meal sprinkled on bed

Step 3: Mix Bone Meal into the soil

Step 4: Put 2 seeds in each location and keep them on the surface of the soil

Step 5: Cover seeds with vermiculite

Step 6: Repeat process until all seeds are planted

Almost done!

 

Step 7:  Cover seeds with burlap.  Soak burlap with water to keep moisture in.

 Planting the Broccoli and Cauliflower was a very simple process compared to planting the carrots.   The important part to remember is to disturb the roots as little as possible when planting. 

Step 1: Layout the plants in 1 foot spacing

Step 2: Dig hole 3 inches deep and carefully put plant in hole.

Step 3: Fill hole with soil. 

Its also helpful to make a saucer like depression around each plant to help hold water.  Finish with firming the soil around the plant and watering the seedlings thoroughly.

2013 Garden Expansion

Below you can see the most current updates to the garden.  We decided to add some decorative touches this year so that it looked more like a garden and less like "giant dog pin" in the yard.  It started with buying 9 Gothic fence posts to add some detail.  Then our amazing neighbor had extra landscape stones and let us have them.  We decided to make 2 flower beds which will be planted to attract beneficial insects.  We added compost to the beds and I moved the birdbath, birdhouse and some shepherds hooks from the front yard to the new flower beds.  The last step was to add some stepping stones and mulch between the raised beds.

Garden expanded for 2013.  Bed #1 starts on the left.

The compost tumblers are in constant need of carbon materials to balance out the nitrogen (mostly our kitchen scraps).  We had leaves left in our garden from last fall so I decided to rake them up and move them closer to the compost so I could add them easily to the tumblers. These stakes and the chicken wire are recycled from our very first 4 x 4 garden!  Things have certainly expanded since then.

Leaf pile

The compost tumblers are in constant need of carbon materials to balance out the nitrogen (mostly our kitchen scraps).  We had leaves left in our garden from last fall so I decided to rake them up and move them closer to the compost so I could add them easily to the tumblers. These stakes and the chicken wire are recycled from our very first 4 x 4 garden!  Things have certainly expanded since then. 

Compost tumblers

Bed #1 planted with- (3) Parsley, (4) 2yr. Asparagus crowns, (25) 1 yr. Jersey Supreme Asparagus, and (16) Peas. 
Bed #2 planted with- (16) Peas.  More plants to follow.

New cedar raised beds (#1and #2)

Asparagus & Parsley

(4) 2 yr. Asparagus and (3) Parsley

1 yr. Asparagus starting to grow

Bed #3 planted with- (32) White Onions, (64) Stuttgart Yellow Onions, (32) Red Onions and (16) Peas. More plants to follow. 
Bed #4 planted with- (16) Peas. More plants to follow.

2 year old pine raised beds (#3 and #4)

Peas

Onion tops with peas in the background

Onions

Center of the garden ready for future watermelon plants.

Stepping stones

Stepping stones between raised beds

Seed Starting Set-Up

Seed growing set-up

View coming in the room

Parsley (Double Curled)

Parsley

Planted seeds- February 9th.  

Seeds germinated- February 13th

Success rate- 7 of 10 

Started hardening off- April 

Transplanted into garden- April 22nd

Broccoli (Di Ciccio)

 Broccoli

Planted seeds- March 16th 

Seeds germinated- March 19th

Success rate- 6 of 6

Started hardening off- April 22nd 

Transplanted into garden- April 29th

Cauliflower (Snowball Y)

Cauliflower

Planted seeds- March 16th 

Seeds germinated- March 19th

Success rate- 6 of 6

Started hardening off- April 22nd 

Transplanted into garden- April 29th

Eggplant (Black Beauty)

Eggplant

Planted seeds- March 24th

Seeds germinated- March28th

Success rate-__ of 20

Started hardening off- May 20th?

Transplanted into garden-May 27th?

Sweet Pepper (Carnival Mix)

Sweet Pepper

Planted seeds- March 16th

Seeds germinated- March 23rd

Success rate-___ of 6

Started hardening off- May 20th?

Transplanted into garden-May 27th?

Red Bell Pepper (Cal Wonder)

 Red Bell Pepper

Planted seeds- March 16th

Seeds germinated- March 23rd

Success rate-__ of 6 

Started hardening off- May 20th?

Transplanted into garden-May 27th?

Zinnias (Cut & Come Again)

2012 Garden in Review

 Hand-drawn Garden Plan

 This is the rough plan I drew up in 2012 for our garden layout. 

May 27th, 2012 
Pictured below are the two raised beds we constructed out of pine in 2012.  The vegetables are just starting to grow.  The layout and spacing we used is from the Square Foot Gardening Method.

In the closest bed (#3) we had: (2) Butternut Squash which would grow on the trellis, (12) Eggplant- two different types: (6) Lavendar Touch and (3) Black Beauty, and (171) Bush Beans- Bush Blue Lake 274 variety. 

In the farthest bed (#4) we had: (3) Straight neck Summer Squash, (2) Cilantro, (1) Green Bell Pepper, (1) Yellow Bell Pepper, (1) Pepper Carmen, (4) 1 year crown Asparagus, (256) Yellow Onions. 

We also planted (2) Bush Zucchini plants on mounds.  You can't see them in this picture but they were located to the left of the first raised bed.                                                                 

New constructed pine beds with vegetables growing

Pine beds a few weeks later.

2013 Garden Layout

My husband decided to draw up our garden plans on the computer to get things ready during the winter.  This is the first year we have been this organized.  In previous years I would just make a drawing by hand, but I always found myself having to re-draw it this way I can just re-print any changes!  

We also expanded the garden adding 2 more raised beds (made out of Cedar) to our previous 2 (made out of pine).   We will now have 17 different vegetables growing compared to the 11 from last year.  All of this takes some planning. 

We used the Square Foot Gardening Method which I highly recommend.
Each bed is broken up into increments of a foot and then depending on the plant it may be broken down further from there.  Its simple, economical, efficient and very productive!

BED #1  (made of Cedar)

Plants starting from the top (back of the bed) : 
(16) Peas after peas replant spaces with (4) Beefsteak Tomatoes (3) Genovese Basil*
(25) Jersey Supreme Asparagus 1 year old crowns
(4) Asparagus 2 year old crowns- replanted from our pine bed
(3) Double Curled Parsely*
*added after plan was drawn

BED #2  (made of Cedar)

Plants starting from the top (back of the bed) : 
(16) Peas after peas replant spaces with (4) Beefsteak Tomatoes (3) Genovese Basil*
(48) Pole Beans
(12) Corn
(4) Winter Squash
(4) Broccoli
(4) Cauliflower
*added after plan was drawn

BED #3  (made of Pine)

Plants starting from the top (back of the bed) : 
(16) Peas after peas replant spaces with (3) Summer Yellow Squash
(36) Bush Beans
(4) Cilantro
(112) Carrots
(32) White Onions
(64) Yellow Onions
(32) Red Onions

BED #4  (made of Pine)

Plants starting from the top (back of the bed) : 
(16) Peas after peas replant spaces with (8) Cucumbers
(12) Black Beauty Eggplant
(4) Red Bell Pepper
(4) Sweet Pepper
(2) Dark Star Zucchini

OVERALL PLAN:   (drawing to be added)