Thursday, March 24, 2011

Flower and Vegetable Spring Gardening

Raised garden bed or square foot gardening? Maybe one can do both. Each one looks neat and not too difficult for a beginner to try. The following video offers information on gardening with a raised bed for your vegetables and flowers.


My fixer upper cabin cottage came with a cacti garden. One of my recent photos that I just love is from one of our recent snow days. 


Last year I decided to plant a new flower garden on a corner of our lot beside a fence. In this flower garden I've planted rose bushes, miniature rose plants, lavender, sage, and a few other plants. Our fixer upper cabin cottage came with lots of rocks, so I used the rocks and red mulch.

This photo was taken after a few snowfalls this winter and before pulling weeds.
The funniest thing that happened after planting that garden last year was that near the spigot some type of berry plant and a corn plant sprouted and grew. I've been considering either using raised beds or square foot gardening to plant vegetables near my flower garden, close to the area in the photo. I have the book, Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew that teaches you to build your garden in a series of squares. The nice thing about the square foot method is it works for one person or a large family and a small or large area.
My plants have withstood the winter, snow, and rain - even a couple of annuals. That extra precipitation kicked in the growing spurt for the weeds as you can tell. I've already been pulling weeds and getting the garden areas ready to plant. Spring arrived on the calendar last weekend. Weather-wise, however, Spring is a bit delayed with snow this week.


Check in again soon for the update on my gardens.
I'm linking to Cottage Flora Thursday.

7 comments:

Kathy said...

Hello,
I think either would work well, the raised beds would make it easier to get to and the square foot could work easily within them - It is fun to take a garden and to make it your own - it is a continual process!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend,
Kathy

Anne said...

Hi! I love your selection of plants, and its interesting for me since we just moved to a snow climate in the CA mountains... i know roses do great here, but not sure yet about many of the plants I'm familiar with from the coastal zones. I'll keep checking back!

Paula ~ castleandcottagesigns said...

Hi Angi,
thanks for stopping by! I contemplated raised beds for my veggie garden ...my sister who lives in RI swears by them.
I was to anxious to get planting to be honest!
happy spring!
paula:)

Donna said...

Hi Angie. I've read that book myself and thought it would be a great way to garden out here in borderline Southeast Texas. We have a lot of land..just not enough time to really garden well. Thanks for dropping by. it's nice to meet you. BTW, I noticed your pink 'tulip' flowers as I call them. I had no idea they were related to magnolias. We love ours. It's the first thing that blooms..usually in January. I must say it blooms long before our Magnolia trees do. It looks very oriental to me.

Thanks for the visit. I do hope we keep in touch. :o)
Donna @ Comin' Home

Unknown said...

Hi Angi,
thanks for coming by and I'm so glad you found me..now I can follow you too! I for sure would love a raised bed as it keeps you in control of weeding and maintanance of a garden. Happy Spring,
Shirley

Fishtail Cottage said...

Thanks so much for linking up to Cottage Flora Thursday's....I've never tried raised beds myself - but excited to see your garden progress over the next couple weeks. xoxo, Tracie

Sunray Gardens said...

I think what you are doing looks great. I am your new follower to see how things progress. Stop by my new blog when you have time and follow. Have fun this season.
Cher
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