Being pretty new to gardening, I'll take all the help I can get. This year I'm using
Smart Gardener to help me figure things out. It's a free program that tells me when I need to do things. I picked my seed varieties from their database (or close enough, they don't have everything), and input the size and orientation of my beds. With that, they gave me a suggested planting map that I could play with until I had it the way I wanted it. The garden map is also printable, which will be handy when I'm planting. Now I get a weekly email reminding me of what I need to do in the garden--starting seeds, preparing soil, planting, etc. by variety. I've now officially started all of the seeds that need to be started indoors!
More seeds were started after this picture was taken, all 3 trays are completely full now.
Yesterday Sam and I got the beds built. We used 6 ft cedar fence pickets from Lowe's (and I've just realized I had a gift card I could have used...oops). Cedar naturally resists rotting, so hopefully they'll last me a few years. I have four beds, 6 ft by 3 ft and about 16 in high. I still need to straighten, level, and fill them; but they're pretty much where I want them.
Cedar fence pickets.
Some cut in half to make the short ends.
Attaching corner brackets.
Building the long sides.
One bed.
All four beds!
Today is a rainy dreary day, so no yard work for me! Along with starting seeds, I also worked on making plant markers for the garden. They're just wide craft sticks with paint pen, nothing fancy. Paint pen should resist fading better than something like a Sharpie, so I should be able to read the labels all season. On the back of each I wrote the number that corresponds to the planting map in normal ink, which will probably fade in the sun.
Red for tomatoes, green for peppers, blue for other.
Next update will probably be after I start planting. Our last frost date is 2nd week of May, some things will get planted before that (peas, parsnips), but most will be after.
