Starting a Small Spring Garden

My name is Margareta and I am an avid gardener together with my husband of many years.  This is my blog about my small year round gardening in a serene beach community in north east Florida.  I plan to share with you my vegetable gardening and landscaping as well as trellis and border fence making.  I also have many other yard projects going on; so, come grow with me.

Starting a Small Spring Garden

Let's aim for creating a 10'x10' garden plot in full sunshine, away from trees, and near the kitchen.  With a spade and a strong back, till or turn the soil to get the grass and weeds out.  You may want to supplement the soil with cow manure bought in a 50 lb sack from your local garden center or home improvement store.  Shovel out a shallow trench around your area to make a border around the garden.  

To Grow Potatoes:  Buy red or white seed potatoes at your local garden center.  It is a preferred method to halve or quarter your seed potatoes depending on where the "eyes" are located.  I prefer to set the whole potatoes in the ground.  Either way, they will grow just fine.  Dig two furrows, a foot apart, and space the potatoes close together if cut and leave a foot apart for the whole potatoes leaving them plenty of room to grow.  Cover them up and as time goes by and the greenery starts showing, you will need to hill the potatoes up.  Thepotatoes are hungry, so feed them well with a common garden fertilizer and water sparingly.

To Grow Green Beans or Snap Beans:  You will find beans in bulk at some seed store or ready packaged in garden centers.  My preference of snap beans or green beans is named 'Contender".  To sow the beans, make a smooth furrow or two, depending on what kind of result you have in mind.  In each furrow, make two shallow furrows with the handle of your garden rake.  We are doubling up on planting the beans.  Make sure that you have room to walk between the two furrows for weeding, watering, feeding, and harvesting.  I usually wait until the beans have come up before I sprinkle a bit of fertilizer, nothing heavy handed, around the plants.  

How to Grow Broccoli:  Broccoli plants are still available at garden centers and they are healthy looking.  A  nine pack of Packman will give you a 10' row, if you plant them close together.  I like the togetherness because it gives the weed little room to grow, or so I hope.  Water your broccoli, let them take root in your garden, and then fertilize sparingly every two weeks.  Sometimes, I let the broccoli bloom out to attract butterflies and bees.

Finally, you don't have to do all of this at one time--stretch it out a little.  It is supposed to give you pleasure and exercise, right?  That, my fellow gardeners, will have to do for today.  We will continue with more planting tomorrow.  Happy gardening and growing!