Enchanted Garden: Our Spring 2011

Alright, so I've planned our Enchanted Garden!

It was a bit of hard work and it took a LOT of imagination, but I think it's done. It was also quite fun! Watching my little Chia garden grow, I've learned that it does take a while for things to grow. But maybe that makes you appreciate them all the more. I also bit into an apple we bought from the grocery store...and it tasted like some identifiable medicine...it was promptly chucked into the garden and reaffirmed my desire to have a homestead.

Something that really helped me plan our garden was a resource over at Mother Earth News!

The great people over at motherearthnews.com have developed a garden planner! And let me tell you, it was ever so helpful in conceptualizing our little space! I input the dimensions of our patio....then selected the plants I wanted (after prodding my Sicilian for his input), and presto-changeo, my garden appeared.

The program seems to be a very garden-y excel, but better. It's also full of helpful info, so go ahead and try it out! It's free for 30 days.

Mother Earth News Garden Planner

Here's what my garden looks like, using the Mother Earth News planner:

Mother Earth News Garden Planner

We're planning on having:

Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Green Beans
Strawberries
Raspberries
Peppers
and some Herbs!

I was going to add Mint, but we have enough Mint tea bags to last a year or more....



As you can see, we don't have very much room for our enchanted, so things look a bit cramped.

(Oh! hopefully I'll be able to add a few statues: I'd really love it to be Secret Garden-esque!)

But the garden planner was REALLY helpful because I don't know much about gardening, and when you choose a fruit or vegetable to plant, a little screen pops up and tells you all about that particular plant.

It was QUITE Helpful.

So here's my artist's rendering of what our garden will look like to a passerby:

 

We'll have to use containers since we don't have any actual soil.  My husband built us two wooden containers, so we'll probably use those for something. Then we may but buy some plastic tubs, or go to a couple thrift stores and find things that can be re-purposed. 

I THINK WE'LL RE-PURPOSE THINGS, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT COOL PEOPLE DO. 

I'm actually thinking of starting some of the plants FROM SEED right now. Things are going really well with my Chia Herb Garden. I'm so happy! So I'm thinking: why not get started! 

But I think I'll hold off a bit. I need to finish re-decorating our flat...

We moved right before our wedding. My husband was then away for a week doing research. We painted the bedroom an erotic dark purple (so we slept in the living room for awhile since it took FOREVER to paint). Then we got married. Then we went to Europe for a couple weeks. Then it was Christmas and we were away visiting. It's just been one thing after another. 

So now we have time enough to finish transitioning from our kind of "college style" to the more elegant gilded shabby chic, genuine European, eccentric library love nest of our dreams. It's taken quite awhile to get my Sicilian to let go of his milkcrate bookshelves and other such stuff. And I'm also downsizing quite a bit. Just throwing out lots of old papers and such. Our home is really coming together, it's just taking FOREVER. But I don't  mind...better to do it right.

I think that's why I won't start from seed right now...need to finish polishing our home's organizational capacity. Plus we grew from seed last year...and I think buying plant-lings will be really fun!

Super tangent....

But there's our garden, in all it's hypothetical glory!

I'm getting to that homestead! One seedling at a time!

*~*~*Imogen~*~*~*