It's been several months since I've posted to the blog because once our garden slowly petered out, I had less interest in blogging here. Now that the weather is warming up again, and spring is not such a long way off my thoughts have turned to this years garden. We have some hurdles to overcome though to get the Sunny Patch up and running again.
The first obstacle is our dogs. They broke into our garden last year and ate up our watering tubes. We have tried unsuccessfully to keep the dogs out of the garden. They broke into it and ate a bunch of our old tomatoes and boy did they get sick. Our options for keeping them out of our new garden are 1) Installing a real fence and gate big enough to keep our Saint Bernard out 2) Buying an electric fence to keep the dogs from trying to get into the garden.
Honestly I'd prefer to make a nice gate and fence but financially that is the most expensive of the two options. I think we are going to go with option two and see if it works. We have tried many measures to keep the dogs out, and unfortunately we have to resort to the electric fence. I'm hoping just a small zap or two and our dogs will get the picture and stay out!
Other obstacles are that we have to build additional boxes to plant in. We have one box and it worked wonderfully, only the tomatoes and squash took over the box and pretty much killed the smaller plants. We need a dedicated squash and tomato box, as well as another box or two for the various other plants and veggies we want to grow.
I'd also like to plant some boysenberries or blackberries as well. I think that would be wonderful for our garden to be able to pick some fresh berries. A new fruit bearing tree or two would be nice also. Apples perhaps, or nectarines.
I enjoyed most of the plants we grew last year. I think I will trade the squash our for cucumbers. I probably won't grow the baby carrots again. I'd like to grow broccoli, lettuce, and maybe some asparagus if we can find a nice spot for it.
I have high expectations for this years garden. I am hopeful we can find something to keep the ants away, without resorting to pesticides on our fruits like we did last year with our strawberries.
Here's to another plentiful year in the Sunny Patch Garden.
