My Garden Plans For This Spring

Starting a garden in a new place is always a learning experience. Last year I learned the hard way that the only place we’re allowed to have a garden at our rental home does not get much sun once the leaves fill in the trees. It was doing ok, not great, but surviving until we were drowned out with all of the incredible amounts of rain last July. I was simply too ambitious.

Growing up here in Connecticut, my family always had a vegetable garden. My grandmother grew up on her parent’s farm and everyone in our family has always grown their own vegetables in the summertime. Last year was my first time in adulthood renting a place with a yard, but that still came with a lot of limitations. I cannot wait to have my own yard one day, but there is still so much I can do to make our little garden boxes work for us this coming season.

Our first garden had everything from green beans to tomatoes, lettuce, herbs, peppers, cucumbers, and more. -Everything that I used to grow when I grew up with a garden. This year I am reserving our garden boxes for lettuce and herbs since they did the best in this spot and I will be doing more potted plants on our front porch where we get a lot more sun throughout the day. Our yard has many trees and very little sunspots. In the past I have focused primarily on vegetables, but my husband really loves growing flowers. This year will be a simple mixture of both.

For the Vegetables:

As you can see, the garden boxes had quite a variety when I planted them last year. It simply didn’t work because of the location and the flooding rain, however, my herbs and lettuce thrived here in this mostly shady spot. So this year I will plant more herbs and a variety of lettuces in this location.

My green beans and tomatoes will be planted into pots that will be placed around our front porch where they will be in more direct sun and will not shade the rest of our plants.

This year I will not be growing most of our plants indoors again simply because we do not have the space. There is only one major window where they grow well, but it is in full display of our cat Madeleine and she simply can’t help herself when she sees green plants growing within biting range. However, I will try for a few of our tomato plants. Last year my garden budget was over extended from the garden boxes and cost of all the dirt I needed to fill it so I didn’t have proper tomato cages. That will not be the case this season.

The vegetables, Fruits and herbs I plan to grow:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Heirloom rainbow tomatoes
• Green beans
• Butterhead Lettuce
• Romaine Lettuce
• Kale
• Cilantro
• Basil
• Purple Basil
• Mint
• Cucumbers
• Strawberries

The Front Porch:

When it is warm out we do our best to spend time outdoors. This year I’m hoping to really utilize our front porch. My plan is to start by putting up a few more hanging plants and moving the bright green chairs that came with the house to the right side of the porch to create a sitting area over there. I would like to put a wicker bench on the left hand side to create a sitting area for guests and to lounge during the evening for a meal or to read a book. With a small outdoor rug and our fold up bistro table, it will become a cozy hang out spot.

Around the table and chairs there will be a variety of pots of flowers and my strawberry plants. In front of the porch and to the sides there will be large post with a variety of tomatoes and sweet pepper plants. The green beans will be in long skinny planter boxes along the front.

And hanging from above will be strings of bistro lights. I have a few boxes of bistro lights from our bridal shower party that were never put to good use. I would like to put them here for evenings on the porch.

At the moment I am doing my best to get too too ambitious again, but with spring in the air I am looking forward to getting out and growing some plants again. Do you have any flowers or vegetable plants on your agenda this spring?