Planting this year's garden

THE FARMHOUSE

This past weekend, I planted the Farmhouse garden! I say ‘I’, but really it was a collaboration with Nana and the kids, especially Nana :) And now we have 6 raised beds and a few planters full of seeds and tiny little starts - I think our 2023 garden is going to be beautiful and delicious! Today I wanted to share what we planted, a layout, and more details - we’ll call this post my planting journal for 2023.

visor, overalls, boots (on sale!), tank

Gardening has become such a joyous hobby for our family since redoing this space in 2019, and I look forward to Spring all year long! We’re zone 6B here in eastern Washington, and our average last freeze date is May 14th. But that of course is an average, so starting at the end of April, I religiously watched the 10-day forecast on my phone, checking for nighttime temps above freezing. And as soon as I saw every night was well above 32°F, I decided it was time to plant! We’re a little ahead of schedule this year.

Before I tell you everything we planted, I wanted to show you a few photos I took on Monday. There’s still a lot of greening-up to do in the garden, but I’m loving all the buds and fruit blossoms. Have a look…

The lilacs are set in here right now so I don’t forget to water them, but they’re earmarked for a hedge along our fence line, which I’ve been slowly working on.

Garden Layout

Our garden is in the sunniest spot in our yard, with a tall deer fence surrounding it. We added a patio for lounging and a long table where we eat most of our meals in the summer (see the 2019 project reveal here). We have 6 raised beds plus a long bed of raspberries (everyone’s favorite!), fruit trees, lilac, and containers. Here’s how that all fits into our 36’ x 50’ garden…

Bed #1 - Herbs + rhubarb

plants: rhubarb, oregano, sage, thyme, st. johns wart, parsley

notes: replaced sage and thyme this year (neither made it through the winter very well). st. john’s wart was planted last year in beds #2 and #3 and relocated here

Bed #2 - veggies

plants: cherry tomatoes, basil, jalepano peppers, misc flowers

notes: grown from starts from Nana and nursery

Bed #3 - greens + veggies

plants: Lettuce, kale, beets, radishes, carrots, swiss chard

notes: lettuce, beets, and carrots grown from starts from Nana and nursery

bed #4 - kids bed

plants: strawberries

notes: the kids asked for their own garden this year so I gave them this bed to plant and tend (with help from mom). they chose to grow strawberries!

Bed #5 - flowers

plants: cosmos, zinnias, bulpleurum, baby’s breath, forget-me-not, calendula

notes: right now the bed is covered with some extra willow pyramids to keep the birds out of the seeds

Bed #6 - dahlias

plants: dahlias including cafe au lait, boom boom white, Take Off, Mystery Day, Romantique, Otto’s Thrill, Pacific Ocean, Passion Fruit, and Bonesta (all found at local nurseries and garden centers)

notes: all dahlias grown from tuber except Passion Fruit. I have extra room in this bed and will add more flowers once the dahlias are sprouted and can be watered

Planting

Soil was prepped May 5th with steer manure (6 bags) and compost (10 bags) divided among the raised beds and raspberries. I mostly top dressed but turned up the top layer of soil where I could.

We have yet to get our watering system going, so I’m still watering by hand. But it’s not too hard to keep up on this time of year and I’m enjoying the extra time outside! I won’t water the dahlia tubers until they poke out of the ground.