Tearing Up My Lawn Part 2

As from my first post a while back, I decided to tear up my backyard to start growing food. The first three strips were dug out in early spring and I planted garlic in one row, lettuce and fennel in the next row and onions in the third. I wanted to add two more rows for tomatoes. I bought some seeds and only got one plant out of that batch. I bought additional seeds and got twelve more, each one I prepared ended up growing. I was already to get them into the ground over Memorial Day weekend, but was sidetracked by having a heart attack.

While I was recovering I desperately wanted to dig up the yard and get those tomatoes into the ground, but didn't have the strength. To the rescue came family and friends, not the government. Maybe it's because we don't have a gardening czar, yet. My mother-in-law and close friends Heidi and Keven came out the next Sunday and helped dig up the next two strips. The ground wasn't as soft as it was a few months earlier when it was raining all the time, but Kevin and I were able to get the grass up.

My dad gave me advice that I remember doing when I was a kid, plant milk jugs into the ground with holes punched in the bottom. Fill them with water and it will drain into the soil helping keep the tomato roots well watered. I started saving my 1% half gallon jugs in February in the garage, I cleaned them out first of course. It was a struggle explaining to everyone why the milk jugs would be buried in the ground, but everyone agreed and pitched in.

As soon as the grass was removed and the milk jugs buried, bagged soil was added to the ground to mix in with the current soil that was broken up slightly with the new ground weasel spiky evil sharp thing to tear up earth. This was raked in and then I planted the tomatoes in between each milk jug. A baker's dozen which I'm hoping this will give me a bunch of tomatoes. Red and greens, especially the greens since I haven't had a pickled tomato in years. The tomatoes will be canned as sauce, chopped and whole to use during the fall and winter. My goal is to not have to buy canned tomatoes ever again, so I'll need to calculate over the next few years how much this will take.

So the garden is getting there, I actually had some lettuce the other day. I found a few garlic plants already growing when I cleared out some weeds near a rose bush. At first I wasn't sure but after pulling it out found some cloves on them, I cooked them in the chili I made (recipe listed in Farmer's Market part 4). The fennel is starting to grow strong, a few onions are starting to shoot up and the jalapeno I dropped in is still growing, I'll see if it gives me any peppers. As the vegetables grow I'll keep updates.