2014 Organic Garden In The Ground!

The seedlings were going strong, and I was getting impatient.
There was only one thing to do:

Get OG2014 into the ground!

With my #1 organic gardening assistant (husband), as well as #2 & #3 assistants (dogs), we took advantage of the beautiful weather in the northeast today to get the garden party started.

One mistake I thought I made was not labeling the seedlings. I was confident in my ability to figure out what was what, but once it started sprouting....I had no idea.

However, I let them grow a teeny bit further, and they started to look familiar:

After three years of seed starting, I recommend peat pots a million times over! These biodegradable trays can be easily cut and your new seedling can be planted right into your garden still in its little container that will eventually biodegrade away- extremely convenient.

If you water as aggressively as I do, I also recommend placing the containers in sturdy plastic tray, as they can turn a bit mushy.

Oops, the bottom just fell right out of some of them once I took them from the tray. Luckily, we were right near the garden, so no biggie:

First in were the cucumbers. Maybe you remember "Cucumber Flavored Whaaaaaaaat?" from 2013?

Whether they are in salads or sliced up alone or resting on my eyes, cucumbers are one of my favorite summer vegetables!

You can also see my sneaky onions along the top of this picture- a birthday gift from my Mom- they've been growing for two weeks already!

Next in were the tomatoes- which I'm counting on for salsa. Here the cucumbers are along the top of the top bed, and the tomato plants are below them on the left. You can see the strawberries already in full swing in the bottom bed- I just leave them in the ground year to year:

For some reason, just putting in these few plants knocked OG Assistant #1 out.

Assistants #2 & #3 thought this made the garden even more interesting. (We have to keep our eyes on Assistant #2- he once ate a small bed of strawberries at our old house in just a few sittings.)

Does Assistant #3 want to help by putting on a garden glove? Nope, but we tried!

To finish off the top bed we planted spinach seeds, along with some cilantro and parsley (which admittedly looked frail), and sprinkled on some magic worm poop- AKA vermicompost.

Moving on the the lower and already-blooming-with-strawberries-bed, we planted the peppers in their peat pots (say that three times fast!):

 An overview of both beds:

Of course, we couldn't forget the berry fence! Made from a few pieces of flexible PVC pipe and chicken wire, the berry fence protects our harvest from the local birds and bunnies (as well as Assistant #2):

Speaking of berries, here are the pre-season raspberry and blackberry bush (fingers crossed and Lucky Charms poured for a good berry harvest!):

Guess who showed up during all this digging?! These guys must have heard how well we treat their cousins!

Finally, we completed a very Pinteresting project: vertical PVC planters.

I had Assistant #1 drill three rows of holes in three pieces of PVC- two for the deck and one for the mailbox:

We capped them off at the bottom, and used zip ties to secure them to the deck and mailbox. I placed three different types of plants into the holes, and filled the remainder with potting soil and OF COURSE, vermicompost!

The finished product on the deck:

The one we made for the mailbox was a little smaller:

I'm really hoping that I selected the correct flowers to fill out the planter, because it was a rather simple project that's already generated a lot of conversation in the 'hood.

OG2014 is in the ground, and the Pinteresting flowers are planted...stay tuned!