It Is Not Too Late to Plan...

Up until now, I had been proceeding with an informal plan "in my head".   I decided that I  would like to make a basic, Beginning Yard Map of my backyard so that I could plan with a little bit of forethought.    I measured the perimeter and graphed it out.  This is what my back yard looks like without the garden beds that I created. 

It isn't totally accurate, but it is close.  Each square = 3 square ft.  

Beginning Yard Map

I also wondered about what sort of utilities might be buried under the surface of my yard.  I did not want to accidentally damage some utilities while digging.  I should have done this before I ever began to dig, but as soon as I thought of it I decided I better get it done before I got too involved in my plan!  

So I called the Dig-Line.  It is a free service.  They came out within a day or two and located buried electricity, natural gas, telephone and cable tv lines, marking them with colored spray paint.  It turns out that the only buried lines that are in the backyard are telephone and cable tv.  

I was relieved to learn that I hadn't dug close to those lines!

I  transcribed the utility line locations onto my diagram.  They are the purple and orange dashed lines.  Then I drew in the garden beds that I had created in 2014 (indicated with a blue arrow).  

Phase One - Year One Garden

I am calling this my Phase One -Year One Garden because I am just planning and putting in the beds, or planting areas.  I have lots of ideas to expand in the coming years!

Fall Harvest, November Snowstorm and a Long Winter's Nap.

 

The garden did fairly well for the length of time that I actually had spent gardening. 

                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                 

I had a few harvests of squash and tomatoes in late September and early October.  The peppers and tomatillos I had planted did not produce anything.  I think it was because I did not get them planted until it was too late in the season. 

Pictured below:  (Clockwise, from top left) Yellow Crookneck summer squash, Buttercup winter squash, Cherokee Purple tomato, Early Girl tomato.                                                                                                                                                                     

   

            

Frosty nights were predicted, and as I hadn't picked all the produce, I took precautions by covering the tomato and squash plants every night with some old quilts.  With a quilt covering, the frost nipped the plants but did not kill them.  Warm days returned, I suspended the nightly quilt covering, and I continued to harvest a few more squash and tomatoes.  

The harvest finally ended when we had a snowstorm in mid November.  Nine inches of snow fell and that killed the garden.  I was really regretting that I hadn't simply cleaned up the garden in October! 

Luckily, the weather warmed, the snow melted away, and I was able to do the garden cleanup.  I pulled out all the dead tomato and squash plants and put them in the compost pile.   Then I dug up the soil and raked it all smooth so that it would be ready for planting in the Spring.

More snow arrived on Christmas to blanket the garden, and now it is truly tucked in for the winter!