Some hard work and a few words about positioning

 

Shifted the board a little

 

My OCD got the better of me and I decided to dig the board mostly out and shift it to the right a litttle more. Doesn't look like much but it's enough I feel better about the position. As I posted previously, I watered thoroughly yesterday so you can see that the soil is still pretty good. I almost bought a zucchini plant yesterday and a bag of soil for the other bed but held off because I'm still waiting for money to come in. The 1.5 cubic foot of garden soil (really good stuff called Happy Frog) was $16. I'd rather do that then get the Yellow Green bag that is not organic. That company now makes an organic soil but it's almost as expensive and I'd rather support my smaller garden store.

Want to plant another tomato in this bed or maybe something smaller so the pepper doesn't get too shaded. My local little nursery (actually called The Plant House) had some tomatoes but they didn't look good and didn't feel like putting another pepper in or which kind just yet.

Positioning in a garden is kind of crucial. Consider the angle of the sun with your bed position and what you want to grow. I would like to put some beans in and the best spot would be against the wall so they get maximum sun and don't shade the other plants. Let's say that my bed was running the other direction so the length of the bed ran roughly north south or perpendicular to the wall. In that case I  would still plant tall things at the back against the wall on the right and shorter plants in front. Now if it were backed against the other wall, I would put plants that are shorter against the wall like herbs and put my tomato or pepper where it would get more sun. I'm lucky that this bed runs just slightly off of East-West. In winter it will get more and less sun since the sun will be angled to the south more. Makes for good winter veggies though because that wall will get good reflected sun.

Still need to move that aloe and the decrepit planter box behind it to give me some more room to plant. Every time I think about it I didn't bring my gloves with me. Then there's that pile of wood as well. I don't want to get rid of it entirely because there's at least one lizard that is using that for a home. Lizards are good. Maybe I can make a lizard house out of some of the wood and have the guys move the rest.

Beans are for summer, peas are for winter, it works out well though for any climbing plant, my issue is all I have handy are tomato cages. Interesting experiment to grow bush beans with a cage.I only tried to grow beans once before. I had some spare lima beans left from some cooking I did and planted them against a fence. Two days after they came up, snails came in and mowed them down overnight. Seriously annoyed that happened but that was almost twenty years ago. Worth a shot again for fresh eating and maybe some pinto or other beans to save for making chili in the fall. See! Plan ahead for what you want in the garden. That is if I have a good enough yield to get a pound or so of beans. Pintos and kidney beans are tall climbers that might be a challenge in my space. 

 

I really want to grow a zucchini though. 

When I was little, our house was on the edge of a canyon and at the time very few other houses were around so there was a lot of wildlife wandering through and lots of open space. My brothers and I convinced my parents we wanted a vegetable garden. I remember where it was and how big it was and we planted carrots and lettuce and a few other things and.. three zucchini. I remember going out there and watching everything grow and slowly but surely the only thing left were three huge zucchini plants. 

Remember the wildlife? Deer, rabbits.. yah...nothing survived but the zucchini because they have spines all over the leaves and stems.

Well, we were a family of five and let me tell you we had zucchini coming out of our ears. I still have my mom's recipe box with a handful of recipes for using zucchini bread. The biggest one we harvested must have been about a foot long if longer and as big around as your forearm or bigger (I was like ten at the time so I just remember it being huge).  So for sentimental and cooking reasons I want a zucchini plant. One is more than enough, if it's successful, for two people and the rest of the complex as well. Oh and there's never just one plant in a container at the store. Usually two or three for good production so if I do that, yeah more than enough. 

This is what the other bed looks like before I took a hoe to it. Chopped it all up, that is wild purslane coming up with in a garden bed can take over rapidly as in this situation:

 

Spurge and purslane are both being watered like they are cherished plants. Oh yes and some crabgrass as well. Sigh.

I am known as The Plant Lady where I worked, I even have a patch that a customer bought for me that says so which will be attached to a denim jacket I have.

I'm torn between putting a sign up or just leaving it be. As long as the weeds don't get in my beds leave them be.