The Garden is Planted! (2012 Garden Update #3)

It’s hard to get your garden planted when you’re off driving around the West, but the garden is finally planted!

When I’m on a trip, I work hard before I leave so that recipes can still appear on the blog, so readers might not realize that I’ve been off on a long road trip to visit my brother, visit a nephew and his family, see my friend Cheryl, and most of all to speak at Camp Blogaway (which I highly recommend, especially for relatively new bloggers.)  The weather in Utah got warm very early this year, so I did plant most of my garden before I left.  Since I’ve been back I managed to finish the planting and had good intentions of getting the garden nicely weeded before I took photos for the blog, but the rain gods made short work of that plan.  The garden loved the rain though, so here’s what I’m growing in my garden this year, weeds and all!  Above is an early morning shot of the garden space just as the sun is peeking over the trees that are on the east side in my neighbor’s yard.
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Saturday Snapshots: Enriching the Soil Before Planting in My Raised Garden Beds (2012 Garden Update #2)

Raised garden beds need organic material added to the soil every few years.

I got off to an early start on the garden this year, trimming my perennial herbs much earlier than I usually do.  Then a combination of me being sick and lots of rainy days in Utah conspired to put the garden on hold until this week.  Raised garden beds are wonderful because they don’t require lots of maintenance, but your raised beds will produce healthier plants if you enrich the soil with organic material at least every few years.  You can buy bags of organic compost at a garden store, but many cities that collect yard waste also grind it up and create compost that’s sold by the truckload.  I don’t have a truck, but I am lucky enough to have a great family, and this year my brother-in-law Clayton offered to bring me a load of compost and till it into the soil for me.  (Thanks Clayton!)
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