My First Real Kitchen Garden - Starting Seeds

Credit: urbanhomstead.org

As I've continued to read and learn about Whole / Real Foods I've thought more and more about having a real kitchen garden this summer.  Not just a pot or two like years before that I neglected after the first harvest ... but a real garden.  We have been saving a long time to do our back yard and this spring it will be done.  Last year we literally gutted it and it is just one big flat pile of mulch so the dogs won't track in anything.  We are getting close to finalizing the plans and just in time I had the designer put in a small fenced area for a garden.  From searching on-line I decided to try and start some seeds.  My attic office is a very sunny spot and I'm up there Monday - Friday so I knew if I set things up there I wouldn't neglect them.  I'm actually kind of excited so I find I even check on 'my babies' on the weekend.

We have a Craftsman Foursquare house so there are windows right near the floor to the front.  I have an ivy there that has been happy now for a while and my neighbors all told me whenever they had a sick houseplant the old lady that used to live here would take it to her 'hospital' and then return it later big and healthy... turned out this is exactly where she kept them.  I lined up some storage shelves so that they create a waist high wall between this area and the rest of my office ...simply so the dogs don't mess with anything.  I bought two basic black desk lamps and put in grow bulbs to help give extra sunlight and warmth to the plants.  

These are herbs that I started first.  The Cilantro seems to be doing the best and though you can barely see it here the chives and basil are springing up too.  I've now got them out of the little 'greenhouse' kit I bought and in pots of their own to continue growing.  I did A LOT on purpose because I figured I'd have a high failure rate since I'm new at this.  If too many end up healthy then they will make great little gifts for the neighbors come spring!

In these 'greenhouses' I've got a new crop of seeds starting.  I did a lot of research on what was easy and also what grows well together.  I've got tomatoes and grape tomatoes, cucumbers, two kinds of lettuce, sweet peppers, marigolds, sunflowers and beets.   I also got some poppies and a mix of flowering vines that I hope to use in a patch of ugly dirt right outside of our fence to liven it up - train the vines up on the fence for  some curb appeal from the alley!   Once these are done I'll probably go get some more marigolds - since supposedly if you plant them around everything in your garden it really helps.  This is the plan I'm looking at.  The only thing I didn't get was the zucchini.  I did beets instead.

Companion planting facts are pretty interesting.  Here is what I found:

• Beets help lettuce.
• Garlic helps beets.
• Sunflowers help cucumbers & serve as a trellis for them. 
• Marigolds help cucumbers, tomatoes, pepper & kale. 
• Tomatoes help sunflowers. 
• Mint repels slugs that eat lettuce. 
• Peppers & Tomatoes grow well with basil / oregano around them as a groundcover. 
• Chives & Parsley help tomatoes.  
• Keep tomatoes away from dill.  
• Cilantro helps spinach. 
• Tarragon seems to help EVERYTHING!