Getting a Late Start in the Garden

The other day I was on Facebook and noticed that one year ago my garden was already planted and I had a pretty impressive stand of celery, spinach, lettuce, and a few other things. What’s crazy is that as of today I haven’t even started on my raised beds. It wasn’t that long ago we had some freezing temperatures so I decided to hold off on dropping any seeds or transplants. However, seeing how nice everything looked this time last year it’s got me anxious! Over the weekend I did a little preparation work and each afternoon this week I’ve budgeted out a couple of hours to getting some seeds dropped as well as bed preparation, etc.

I’m going to be doing things a little different this season since things kind of spiraled out of control last summer. It seemed like everything I had failed in some sort of way. My tomatoes and cucumbers both had some sort of fungus going on, most likely fusarium wilt. I’ve been doing a lot of research over the off-season to find some varieties that are not as susceptible and also made myself some preventative plans for getting ahead of the game so everything stays healthy.

Another issue I had last season was the notorious squash bug. I had a great looking squash crop one day and it seemed like the very next day it was wilted and dying. I’ve also done a lot of research on this pest and I hopefully have a plan in place this season that will help me keep that pest at bay as well.

As far as my poolside landscaping goes, I’m planning on dropping in some plants from the local garden center over the next weekend or so and get them ready for the season. I’m also going to need to completely re-route my drip irrigation this summer. This is a lot of work because I’m pretty meticulous when it comes to irrigation but to be perfectly honest, I really kind of enjoy running it all from scratch.

Just wanted to post this quick blog at the front end of the season, stay tuned because I will be sharing updates from some of my weekend projects in the coming days and weeks.