Garden Update- Two Weeks

Another wonderful update on my backyard garden god of a husband- all the news on our beautiful new garden, as well as some photos of the progress!


Kyle reports: 


Two weeks have passed now, the garden keeps growing and expanding. The growing refers to just about everything in the garden. The vegetables are growing so fast, it is amazing. I expect the cucumbers to start overflowing within a few more weeks. The Patio Tomato in the container has two little green tomatoes coming to life. The growing also refers to the weeds and grasses. This is likely because I only tilled the sod instead of removing it or placing any barrier down before installing the raised beds. To make up for youthful mistakes, I have laid down a layer of newspaper wth a layer of dirt on top. Hopefully, this will keep the grass at bay. The expansion refers to the fourth raised bed built, 7 ft by 1 ft, for the peas and extra plants that need a home. This time, I laid down two layers of cardboard and then installed the raised bed. The peas have a nice trullis built from bamboo, twine and staples. We are not planning any more expansion, but it is great to see the plants grow!


And now for the photo updates:

The new bean & pea trellis set-up, with second half of the bed open for more tomatoes

Deck pots and seedlings, including recently transplanted sunflowers, zinnias and cosmos

First 3'x5' bed with tomatoes, Japanese eggplant, basil and peppers

Second bed with cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini

Third bed with herbs, cantaloupe, and watermelon, and a complete view of the entire garden!

The Humble Garden

I'm going to skip over the standard list of lame excuses as to why it's been so long since my last post, and get right back into posting- ok with you? Excellent!


In all honesty, I didn't even write this post. This is a "guest post", if you will, from my awesome husband about our newly planted and cultivated backyard garden. This is the first time we've had our very own backyard, so we were thrilled to finally have some space to till a little land and see what sorts of fruits, veggies and herbs we can produce. Kyle very lovingly constructed three 3'x5' raised beds in our backyard, giving us 45 square feet to play with, in addition to some deck pots and hanging baskets. Enjoy his post below, and be sure to check back for updates on our garden, and the subsequent culinary inspirations it springs forth over on The Humble Table!

Kyle's Gardening Blog- The Raised Bed Experiment, Easter Weekend 2012

Partially to celebrate Easter and partially to celebrate the great weather in Lousisiana, we built ourselves three raised gardens. We choose raised gardens because our soil is dense and is will remain very wet for several days after a rainfall. The location is in the backyard and gets partial sun in the morning, direct sun during mid-day and shade in the afternoon. Prior to installing the raised beds, the lawn was broken up and tilled. The beds are 5’ by 3’ and constructed with 2” by 6” pressure treated timbers screwed together with brackets reinforcing the corners. After installing the raised beds and planting the seedlings, we discovered the LSU AgCenter has great guidance on this sort of topic. We might not have chosen the best veggies for our April garden in Louisiana, but most should survive and produce wonderful ingredients for my wife’s great meals. Below is a diagram illustrating how we have filled our three new raised beds: