If you are a new gardener just waiting for the weather to warm up to sink your hands in the cool moist earth, you don’t have to just sit back right now and imagine the vegetables that will fill your table this summer.  Right now you can get busy planning the layout of your garden.  Backyard Landscape Ideas offers some great tips in The Essentials in Planning a Vegetable Garden Layout, including:

Sketch out your plan on a piece of paper to see what will go into your garden. If you have a big garden lot, you can always do row cropping wherein you set wide rows in between as walking paths. This is beneficial if you plan to use mechanical weeding tools to remove weeds in your garden. But if your garden is a small one, you can always plant vegetables close to each other. You won’t be able to use any mechanical equipment to remove weeds, but you’ll get more out of the space by planting more vegetables.

Other things to consider are soil type, space available, and sunlight.  Read more on this helpful website!

There are a multitude of items that can be composting – many of which people forget. By composting, you keep trash out of landfills so take a look-see some of these ideas from HGTV,

23. Old jelly, jam, or preserves 24. Stale beer and wine 25. Paper egg cartons 26. Toothpicks 27. Bamboo skewers 28. Paper cupcake or muffin cups 29. Used facial tissues 30. Hair from your hairbrush 31. Toilet paper rolls 32. Old loofahs 33. Nail clippings

The list is incredible, although some I would NEVER do!

Photo by Bryan Alexander.

Since it’s Friday and time to RELAX, this idea about growing herbs indoors during the winter months strikes me as brilliant… a wine box container garden.

Want to get your hands on wine boxes to try this out? Try asking around at the local liquor store or grocery store. I bet they have some in the back that they’d be happy to part with if you ask really nicely. If stores around you are a bust, you can also find second hand wine boxes at the thrift store and sometimes even on eBay.

Or – since it’s the weekend – you could just enjoy a few glasses of wine yourself.  It’s for a good cause – INDOOR GARDENING!

We have the worst soil in my yard.  For me to successfully grow my own vegetables, I’ll have to go the “raised garden” route made from compost by using other nutrient-enriched soil.  Plus the deer, rabbits, squirrels, and other hungry critters will have to be kept away.

Sometimes even when all that happens, the garden may still produce a disappointing harvest.  Being Frugal talks about how to deal with this type of harvest – and actually takes the cup half full approach!

Perhaps it was the stress of this underwhelming produce yield, but I felt compelled to mull this matter over some fried food and a beer, pub-style.

And then it hit me, I had exactly what I wanted right in my farm basket… for a perfect plate of pub food.

I sliced the woody cucumber up, and dropped it in a big bowl of iced saltwater to take the bitterness out. (It did nothing for the woody skin, but it wasn’t too bad, and I could have cut it off).

Add fried green tomatoes and fried green beans and the feast was complete!  Kudos to Jessica for her inventiveness!

Photo by Girl Interrupted Eating.

The idea is to prepare for a wedding by spending a year picking up milk glass, then growing succulent plants for the centerpieces.  I applaud the work that went into this and the attention to detail.

Here’s what Miss Morgan Melim says about her project,

When we moved up here we slowly began planting succulents in large and small pots around the house. I was shocked how quickly they began to breed! Crazy baby succulents popped up all around the big ones. Also a few weeks ago my grandma gave me a GIANT pot of succulents she had grown, so we had a ton.

Be sure to click through and look at all the phenomenal pictures!

Photo by Jose & Roxanne.

Jamie’s plan to weed her vegetable garden is very similar to my plan to get the house clean.  Bribery.

Last weekend we had reached a critical point in the early stage of our vegetable garden. The weeds were winning like Charlie Sheen on a 24-hour buzz. I was going to have to suck it up and weed while hubby mowed the yard. So I did what every smart mother does—I talked my kids into helping me with the reward of an afternoon at my sister’s pool dangling before them like a  sparkly rainbow unicorn handing out ice cream sandwiches and Pokemon cards.

While no one loves vegetables fresh from a garden more than me, I’ve always been challenged by ticks, mosquitoes, sweating, and general discomfort from being outdoors.  I plow ahead most days when it’s time to mow the lawn or plant flowers, but weeding.  Nah… sounds not like fun!

How is your garden coming this year?

While there are no panda bears living in my neighborhood, the prospect of growing bamboo seems interesting.  Perhaps along a fence line or to hide an ugly old building in your backyard? However, growing bamboo can be tricky.  There are good kinds and there are bad kinds.  From Outdoors blog,

Wanting shelter from the W/ N/W winds which whistle across open fields at the back of the house, I enthusiastically planted this thug ! Yes it did a first class job for a few years,but now I’m constantly chopping the stuff & boy has it spread. I

According to one website, if running bamboo were that bad it could take over the world.  (I have often wondered that about Kudzu too).  Here’s a link to some bamboo info you might find useful.  Me?  I’m sticking to my dreams of a raised garden for potatoes, tomatoes, and maybe squash.

A friend told me yesterday – when looking at the real possibility of food prices dramatically increasing – that he is planting a garden this summer.  My challenge is that we have lots of deer in our neck of the woods so coming up with a way to grow vegetables without them being eaten is tough.

I have found a solution, I believe.  From the website AvianWeb.com, The Easiest Vegetable to Grow,

Cherry Tomatoes: Cherry tomatoes are the easiest to grow. They will even grow well in tubs. They don’t need to be staked – provided you don’t mind them sprawling around. They are sensitive to frost, so it’s best to start them indoors if you are in a colder climate. When your seedlings get to 5 – 8 inches, transplant them into tub or the ground. If you are going to stake them, get your stakes in first so you don’t damage the root system.

Potatoes: Potatoes require very little maintenance. They can be grown in space-saving patio tubs, raised beds, or the traditional earthed-up rows. “Early” and “Late” varieties are ready after about 75 and 90 days respectively; main crops take 135 to 160 days.

Planting is possible at any time your soil is workable (meaning not water saturated or ice-bound), and warm enough for weed shoots. There should be sufficient time for plants to reach maturity before winter frosts.

This truly could be my summer project.  What vegetables do you grow?

Photo by jeremiah via flickr creative commons.

These ten simple steps are helpful for the aspiring gardener.  From Gardens Now, these basic rules of thumb may do some product pushing, but try to read past that … and go get your hands dirty!

Rule #3 – Plant your plants in the right place in your yard–sun-loving plants in the sun, shade-loving plants in the shade.

Rule #4 – Provide your plants with complete nutrition. Most fertilizers and plant foods don’t. Spray-N-Grow and Bill’s Perfect Fertilizer provide major and minor elements identified by botanists as necessary for plant growth and production.

One tip that was left off is to seek advice from other gardeners.  Hear what tips and advice they can give because they’ll know the local soil, how rocky it is, what does well, what doesn’t.

Spring is coming… just a couple more months!

Photo by Vasenka via flickr creative commons.