Building an Urban Garden Step 5: Planting
I want my very own personal cornfield. In case you were wondering, that has been the point of this project all along. So to start my very own cornfield, I bought a package of sweet corn seeds, and planted in a seed sprouting tray a week before I was ready to place them in the garden. Within 5 days, almost all of them had reached 3-4 inches tall.
To prep the section of the garden that was to become a corn field, I marked out rows that were a little over 2 feet apart, and placed the the plants ~10 inches apart in the rows. 3x spaghetti squash and 1x butternut squash got planted between the corn rows. They’ll provide cover to keep out some weeds. I’ve also slowly begun to plant various vine beans by the corn so the beans can climb the corn plans as they grow.
The next row is 3 sugar baby watermelons. These are a small, heirloom variety of watermelons that only require about 4 feet between them. It’s my first year growing these, so we’ll see how they do.
In the next row are 8 cucumber plants with radish seeds planted around them. Next to them are my fiancé’s one request for the garden–12 hot pepper plants. The hot peppers are a mix of serrano and cherry. I’ve found hot peppers do well in small spaces—they may not grow huge, but last year I filled a 12 inch pot with 3 plants, and they made a ton of peppers.
Five eggplants got planted in the row next to the peppers. 3 are classic eggplants, one is fairy tale eggplant, and another is a applegreen eggplant.
The 7 tomatoes are mix of varieties. They include a Custralee, an amazon chocolate, a mortgage lifter, a pineapple,and a carmello. Emily also gave me 2 cherry tomato plants, although I forgot the varieties.
I also planted a strawberry pot. They were on sale at a local nursery, so I thought “why not?”. I love strawberries.
Lastly, I planted some herbs. When it was done, I had 4 oregano plants–3 were survivors from last year, one came from a neighbor. I also had 5 basil plants (yes, I will use this much on a regular basis), 3 mints (orange, chocolate, and lemon balm), thyme, rosemary, and lavender. I don’t believe everything is pictured. The blue bin is my first attempt at a compost bin. We’ll see how it goes.
Next up: my endless battle with bindweed–a type of invasive morning glory which is causing me endless grief, and progress on the garden’s growth in the weeks since it’s been planted.
Garden and Gears 