I built my raised garden beds and my DIY trellis and I'm so pleased! The backyard still has a longgg way to go before I get close to the cottage garden vibes that I'm looking for, but we are on the way! Small steps!
I shared my Raised Garden Bed DIY last week and I got a lot of questions about what I planted in them. SO I'm going to share that today!
I stared everything from seeds, and you know what? You DO NOT have to do that. I saw so many amazing gardens online and all of these cute seedlings and I got so excited. So I ordered a ton of seeds. I don't have a huge garden right now, soooo while I love the idea of seed starting, if you have a small area to work with, it's not too expensive to buy a few veggie plants that you can transplant into your garden. Make sense?
Anyway, the seeds were fun, but I don't have a greenhouse so they took up a lot of room in my house while they sprouted! My timing was also off thanks to the Dallas weather and two late (in my opinion) freezes that delayed my planting!
Last year, I grew zucchini in pots at my old house. It was great. If you're new to the gardening game, I think a great place to start is with one plant or one type of plant and you can get a feel for it!
Since I am a suuuper experienced gardener (after one year of zucchinis lol) I went big and planted quite a few different veggies and herbs and flowers! My overall backyard design and landscape plans are holding me up a little bit, and I would like to have more official gardening space in some landscape beds around the perimeter of my yard, but we are working with what we have right now until I find a good landscaper to work with. I've had a few bail oh me and/or ghost me.
So this year in my garden, I'm using the square foot method of garden since I don't have a lot of space. Each square foot will grow something different; I have 18 square feet in each of my 6'x3' beds. I have a mix of herbs, veggies, and flowers. Here are all the plants that I have started from seeds so far.
Trellis
Kentucky Pole Beans
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Cherry Tomatoes
Yellow Vine Tomatoes
Cayenne Pepper
Jalapeño
Bell Pepper
Obviously I only have one trellis, and this is a lot of veggies to grow on it, so my plan is to see what takes off and the trellis will be first come, first-serve. If I need to add stakes on the opposite side of the bed, I'll do that.
Veggies
Spinach
Romaine Lettuce
Onion
Carrots
I didn't realize this but I don't think I want to mess with a lot of "root" veggies in the future. Vining plants can bear so much food from just one plant by growing up, but root veggies take up a lot more ground space for only one vegetable being produced.
Herbs
Mint
Cilantro
Thyme
Basil
Lavender
I'll keep some of these in container gardens, but I love growing my own herbs! I used some of my Basil yesterday to make some homemade pesto sauce to give to my mom to take home after Easter. So fun!
Flowers
Asclepias
Zinnias
Cosmos
Marigolds
Sunflowers
Dahlias
We are going to have a bee hive in our backyard at the other end from the garden, but I want to make sure the bees have plenty of flowers around! I'll also be planting some flowering vines on our fence, which I am so excited about.
When I get my landscape beds complete along the fence, I'll grow a second round of flower seeds to plant there. Might as well since I already have the seeds!