What's in the garden?

This is my first year gardening. Since we live in campus housing, we get a 10' x 10' plot in the community garden. It has been a fun way to keep myself out of trouble. Unfortunately, I did not know the first thing about gardening, though my Granddaddy was a Horticulture professor. I guess I never really paid attention when we use to visit my grandparent's orchard/farm in East Texas growing up. And my Dad always said he played football and baseball to get out of working the farm! My mom, like us, grew up in Dallas. So I didn't have a clue! But thanks to my helpful Chinese neighbors, Barnes & Noble, and the Internet, I have, at least, learned enough for my spinach to have grown through to harvest. Since I'm an engineer, I enjoyed the planning part the most. How do you fit in the most plants into your space, while starting the seed at the right time to have a continued harvest, placed away from other plants that might stunt its growth, and spaced away from each other correctly? That is why I decided to do a raised-bed format. I could get the most out of the plot. Note the "unorganized" look. Don't worry, there is a method to my madness. Most of the other plots did row planting. So we shall see! So far, so good.



Jeff doing a little weeding. We have the Southwest corner of the quadrant.

At the bottom: Carrots and onions with green leaf lettuce to the left. It is hard to tell but, every two weeks, I started a new row so I would have a continued harvest. Above that, open space, then a squash and zuchinni plant I started mid-May. To the left is a patch of spinach and carrots. The spinach has already been mostly harvested. And the carrots will be ready in the next couple of weeks to make room for the zuchinni. Behind that is another squash and two basil plants. Then in the back, I have a rows of coriander, basil, and parsely to be around for mid to late summer. Then to the left towards the back is my first tomato. I got a "Best of 2007" pack from Burpee, so don't ask me if it is cherry or a slicer. I'm not sure yet! :-) Also back there is a purple bell pepper!

I have a second tomato that will harvest later, two green beans between them. The two on the mound are cucumbers. I started a mound for canteloupe between the spinach and carrot/spinach patch. The tall plant is a sunflower. :-) Underneath the sunflower is coriander. Coriander doesn't like the heat, so it is nice to have the big leaves overhead from the sunflower.
Down towards the bottom is spinach and lettuce again.

Finally, on this side is a patch of Blue Bachelor flowers (about to bloom!). The little guys to the left are Zinnia and TEXAS BLUEBONNET! I will most likely pick them since it is legal. I've always wanted to. So now is my time. Then along the edge is okra, bell pepper, more okra, and dill. (Don't tell my neighbor that dill stunts the growth of corn) Yikes! Hopefully it will be okay. Anyway, I kind of feel this is like those description papers you had to write in 2nd-3rd grade. The tomato is left of the pepper. Underneath the sunflower, though, I just recently planted a lot of sunflowers to harvest in the fall. YAY!

We have enjoyed getting to know our garden neighbors and to see the different vegetables everyone likes to eat.