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Appreciating my vegetable garden

 It's only when you know you are going to move that you start to really open your eyes to what is around you on a daily basis. Not only inside the house (how have we accumulated so much 'stuff' in the last four years?) but in the yard too. My raised vegetable bed is outside the front of the house, yes, not the back garden but the front. It's a small piece of land- maybe only a depth of 8 feet but enough to put a 12 ft x 4 ft raised bed. 

I started tomatoes and peppers under the grow light with heat pads in the basement last year, and ended up with a bumper crop because we had such a dry and hot summer but I didn't start any other veggies. This year I tried a bunch of different veggies but in the coco coir pellets. They started really well but almost too quickly and were fairly weak plants, so they didn't transplant very well. I took a chance and sewed new seeds into the bed a bit earlier than usual, along with the transplants. Luckily, it was a mild Spring and everything has taken off.



We've had lots of different kinds of lettuce, arugula and early Spring greens so far but the recent heat and humidity has meant that the greens bolted quite quickly. The 'cut and come again' lettuce has been great though. I've been a lot more attentive than usual, appreciating how good the soil has become over the years. It's crawling with all kinds of bio diverse life- not just worms. We've had a lot more rain recently too, therefore it has been easier to keep moist. I'm really enjoying waiting for the next seeds to sprout. 

In the back garden, I have one more raised bed down the side of the house that I put tomato, basil and zucchini in. It's also doing well but I'm not sure there is quite enough sun as the plants seem very 'leggy' but we'll see!


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