The Kitchen Garden: Planted

Our kitchen vegetable garden and perennial herb garden are finally planted and well on their way to growing strong and healthy. Darren finished up installing the retaining wall cap on May 27th. The entire wall came out wonderful! An amazing feat, considering neither of us have ever built a retaining wall before.

Wall complete, garden planted...
herb garden (left) ready to be tackled

Once the retaining wall was complete, we began the arduous task of conditioning the soil for the vegetable garden. The vegetable garden was planted in the upper bed, which was formerly part of our lawn. The soil is a little on the clay side, so we conditioned with lime, peat moss, our own compost, humus & manure, plus a sprinkling of sand. A rototiller, we have not. . . so it was all mixed and turned by hand with pitchforks. Hard work, to say the least. Once mixed through, the soil was glorious, rich and dark. Perfection!

We had planned our plot beforehand, so planting was a cinch. Once all the plants were in, we decided to cover the base with a nice layer of straw, to help keep the moisture in and keep the weeds at bay. And while Darren worked on the garden bed, I worked on potting our container plants. We did quite a bit of experimenting in our containers this year. In addition to our traditional basil, cilantro and parsley, we also tried planting vegetables, nasturtium and even a hot pepper plant in pots this year! I got creative mixing plant types in each container, trying to achieve pretty looking pots, that will also function in producing food, herbs and edible flowers! Can't wait to see how they turn out. So, by June 2nd, the vegetable garden and containers were all planted and well on their way.

Darren transplanting our huge mint plant.
We thinned it by over half!

The next day, we started conditioning the soil for the perennial herb garden. First we had to remove the plants that would later be transplanted once the soil was properly conditioned. Darren did most of the work here, mixing and churning the soil to it's rich consistency and lovely dark colour. The herb garden was also planned out ahead of time, so planting the new plants (and transplanting the original plants) went fairly quickly. No straw for the herb garden, as Darren's research revealed this is not advisable in any perennial garden. We also had ample space in this large bed, so we mixed in a few other surprises, including a handful of shallots that our neighbor (a master gardener) brought over to us.

The day after they were planted, the pole beans
started to climb the trellis

We planted kale all along the cobblestone edging

Incidentally, Darren and I decided to keep a journal for our gardens. We want to closely document what we planted and where, so that we can chart progress, and make modifications next year if need be. We are also tracking the varieties we plant, especially the heirlooms.

Now for the inventory of what made it into our vegetable garden, perennial herb garden and containers...

My sketch of the gardens, in our planting journal

V E G E T A B L E
(* denotes heirloom variety)

Pickling Cucumbers
Tomatoes: Japanese Black Trifele*
Tomatoes: Tomato Pineapple Beefsteak*
Tomatoes: Better Boy
Cherry Tomatoes: Black Cherry*
Tomatillos
Eggplant
White Eggplant
Green Bell Peppers: Yankee Bell
Pole String Beans: Garden of Eden*
Bush String Beans: Jade*
Kale
Cabbage
Zucchini

P E R E N N I A L    H E R B
Rosemary
Lemon Balm
Sorrel
Purple Sage
Shallots
Lemongrass
Lemon Verbena
Curry
Lavender
Lemon Thyme
Golden Oregano
Chives
Mint

Annuals:
Radish Minowase (a white variety)
Cabbage
Zucchini

C O N T A I N E R S
Cilantro
Flat Leaf Parsley
Curly Parsley
Basil
Lime Basil
Hot Banana Peppers
Zucchini
Eggplant
White Eggplant
Nasturtiums
Wheatgrass (for the kitties)