::OG planted 2014::

This is my back garden or my Orchard Garden (OG).

It is about 20 feet wide by 96 feet long. 

The thing is HUGE.

I outgrew my pretty front garden after one year and this is my work horse garden.

I don't keep it perfectly. 

It gets weeds.

It sometimes gets neglected.

It is where I experiment the most, because if it fails I just try again the next year.

This year I am really excited to see what I can learn about gardening from it. 

For the first year ever these kids really where a huge help to me. 

For real.

Not like the year where Max helped me by pulling out every baby corn sprout that he thought was a weed. 

Not like the year where Lily mixed a few pack of different seeds together cause they where pretty. 

This year they (mostly Lily) really cut my work load down and I enjoyed my time with them. 

I use lots of sticks in my garden. 

They keep the dogs from walking or laying on young plants and they remind me where I actually planted something.  Occasionally, they provide a visual barrier to toddlers to walk around instead of on seedling.  And sticks are in large supply around here. 

Sometimes little boys sneak off into the hay field and have sword fights with some of my sticks. 

Bruno was sporting his new summer do and looking very handsome.

We tried a new technique with the tomatoes this year.  Five on each side of a one foot deep trench.  Since this area is a bit hard to get water too I wanted a way to irrigate the tomatoes weekly instead of trying to water more frequently.  The sticks are just to mark the plants but the real bracing will be coming soon. 

Corn is new for me this year.

I always found too many other things I wanted to grow.

This year we decided to give it a shot. 

I looked around and decided to modify a few different ideas.  We took a small bucket and pressed it into the ground so it showed a perfect circle imprint in the soft soil.  Then we put six seeds evenly spaced around that circle.  Each circle is about 2-3 feet from the next one.  I don't measure and I only sort of plant in straight lines.  The lazy girl in me just can't be stopped to make row lines straight.

We mixed in pumpkins between a few corn rows. 

I'll keep you posted with how it all turns out. 

Look at that abandoned boot, sticks, and circles!  Love the barely controlled chaos. 

 

Look at that cute kid!

She kept saying the whole time that she couldn't wait to grown her own garden. 

Next year we may need to make her a little space of her own.  

Here is how the garden ended up being planted.