New Garden Plans

Thanks so much for bearing with me during my hiatus - I hope I've kept people informed through Twitter, @PCHomestead.  It was very productive and I got a lot of big-picture kind of things sorted out.   First of all, I have been writing or rewriting blog posts, and I will begin publishing them on a weekly basis.  They will usually fall into one of three categories: horticulture, how-to, or garden journal.  I plan to post a hort or how-to article every week, and hopefully a garden journal entry as well.  With the latter, I will try not to be as rambling as I have been in the past.  There will also be links to all of these new articles near the top of the site for easy access.  I've been volunteering at the Master Gardener's Office all summer, answering people's gardening questions, but I don't get many outside the office.  I think they're interesting and I learn something every time, so I thought I would go one step further and encourage people to email me with their questions.  I'll do the best I can to answer them.

I've been going back and forth about what I want to plant in the front yard.  First it was fruit trees, then it was something a little more normal - then it got too hot.  Now I think I've decided once and for all and I'm going to be a rebel.  I'm going to plant vegetables year-round in my front yard.  There, I said it.  I think it took me a long time to finally commit to the idea, but I finally did.  I have a little work before I can do it, though - I have to move some plants and dig up a few stumps and pull lots of weeds.  I can't say when I will have the whole project up and running, but I hope to be able to plant some veggies by October.

I also decided on something at the spur of the moment recently.  I started a calendar to keep track of gardening-related events, including chicken hatching and vegetable planting, etc.  Clemson Extension has a planting chart for a number of vegetables in the three main areas of the state.  It's a good reference and I have used it before, but I needed something a little more in-your-face to remind me of when to plant my vegetables, so I can maximize my yield.  I may adjust some of the dates as time passes, and I will also need to know when to harvest them as well.  There very well may be more added to the calendar in the future, but for now it's fairly complete as far as planting windows.

Since creating the planting calendar, I have rushed to get the seeds and plants I need to get my fall planting off to a good start.  I've missed the window for winter and summer squash and lettuce, but it's only by a few days, and it is still time to plant beans and transplant broccoli.  The time to plant radishes is coming up.  That's about all I have room for at the moment.  Until I work on the front yard, the garden will be full for the time being.

In order to get Fall off to a great start, I'm going to post a few articles - a little taste of what's to come.