Early Spring Veggie Bed

Here is an example of a 3' x 8' veggie bed that was planted in the early spring. Some of the quick-maturing crops will be completely harvested and replaced by late spring plantings very soon.

Left half of the bed

The top row: 9 spinach, 9 sugar snap peas, 9 sugar snap peas, 1 red potato

Middle row: 9 spinach, 5 Swiss chard, 16 carrots, 4 mixed lettuces

Bottom row: 4 bok choy, 16 green onions, 9 beets, 16 green onions.

Right half of the bed

Top row: 1 broccoli, 2 squares for melon to come, 9 spinach

Middle row: 5 kale, 16 carrots, 5 kale, 9 spinach

Bottom row: 5 Swiss chard, 4 mixed lettuce, 9 beets, 4 bok choy

In some cases, you can plant too closely and then use the thinnings for baby greens. I will pull up and use the 4 outer kales in each square and allow the center kale to develop to maturity. The spinach, lettuce, and bok choy can be harvested all at once or by picking only the larger outer leaves and letting the center continue to produce, as long as the plants to not go to seed when the weather heats up. Radishes, lettuce and spinach mature VERY quickly and are great crops get in early, then replace in late May or June with your tomatoes, peppers, and melons. Why leave a square blank when you can have a fresh meal's worth of veggie in one month?

SFG Client: Jackie in DC

I recently reconnected with a high school friend in Washington DC via Facebook. She admired my gardening efforts here in Washington, and wondered how she could have a garden of her own, although she felt intimidated at the thought of a big row garden. I gave her a little information about SFG, and she was so excited that she immediately bought and read Mel's book and planned a few raised beds in her backyard.

Her daughter had always wanted a veggie garden, and helped to build the beds.

One of Jackie's challenges were her curious doggies. She decided to put her beds up on legs at waist level to keep them out of range and convenient to work in.

She is so excited to finally realize the dream of having her own garden! She is keeping me updated with her progress and issues that she has questions about.

My Home Garden's "Roots"

After taking out a couple dead and overgrown trees last spring, we came up with a plan to replace our 500 square foot front yard with edible landscaping. Where there used to reside a rotting Japanese maple and a dead-branched blue spruce, there is now a recycled cement mosaic path, raised veggie beds, fruit trees, and berries. My old landscape plan skills from high school came back into play here, you can see. The top of the page is north and the street. The dogwood and 4 large rhodies at the top are preexisting in a perennial bed area, as is the stump from the japanese maple (which is graced with a big pot of nasturiums!). The cement path on the right goes along our driveway up to the front door. After playing around with the path placement after we took the trees down, I watched the shadows during the day and realized the path to the side gate (and composting area) should best be near the house to take full advantage of the sunny areas for veggies out of the house's shadow.

For my birthday last year I received 2 fruit trees from Raintree Nursery, an awesome WA nursery, from my boys. When they arrived I got a bonus: instead of getting the promised 4-way cherry, mine is a FIVE way! Rainier, Lapin, Early Burlat, Kristin, and (surprise!) tart pie cherry Montmorency too! The second tree is an Italian Prune Plum, a dwarf tree with delicious bite-sized fruit that can be eaten fresh or dried.