Planting Our Summer Garden

I am about a week later than I would like to be in planting our Summer Garden this year. I can see from my records that I planted on April 27th last year, and I didn’t plant this year’s garden until yesterday, May 4th.

But alas, I am happy it is finally in the ground!

Last year, my husband built me a 4 x 8 foot raised bed garden box. While last year’s garden wasn’t very successful, I am praying that this year’s effort will be more fruitful.

I think one of my biggest problems last year was that I didn’t have any bees or butterflies. No pollinators means to fruit.

I have researched quite a bit, and it seems there are several flowers and plants that pollinators love, with mint being at the top of that list. I purchased two sweet mint plants and I will put those in containers on the very edge of the garden.

I read that sweet mint grows quite large and can easily take over the area where it is planted, so I decided to put those in pots as to contain them a bit.

I finally got the containers today (Home Depot was out yesterday), and my plan is to get those planted this weekend.

What did I plant in this year’s garden?

This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

I’m so glad you asked!

I purchased all of our plants from Home Depot or Lowe’s. In time, I would like to start my own plants from seed, but this year has been the busiest year I have ever had, so starting from seed will have to come at a future date.

Since I do square foot gardening, I will list what I have by the square:

• 4 squares of Bonnie original tomatoes
• 4 squares of Better Boy tomatoes
• 2 squares of grape tomatoes
• 2 squares of cucumbers
• 6 squares of yellow squash (3 squash plants since they take 2 squares each)
• 6 squares of zucchini (3 zucchini plants since they take 2 squares each)
• 1 square of red pepper
• 1 square of yellow pepper
• 1 square of green pepper

I still have 4 free squares that I am going to plant a heat-resistant variety of lettuce.

I learned everything I know about square foot gardening from All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I have read it cover to cover many times over and can attest to it being a wealth of information!

I also have Cubed Foot Gardening by Christopher O. Bird, and it has been very helpful as well.

What’s left to do?

I didn’t finish all of the tasks I wanted to yesterday. I still need to plant the sweet mint I mentioned earlier.

I also wanted to plant a couple of containers of potatoes. I stopped by Tractor Supply today searching for potato slips, but the helpful guys there told me I was about a month too late. Apparently potato slips are only sold in the early spring months here in North Carolina.

I saw potato slips in a seed catalog I ordered, so I will order those and get them in the ground as soon as they arrive.

Lastly, I bought 6 sweet potato plants today from Lowe’s with some large 20-quart containers in which they need to be planted.

Being a Novice Gardener

Clearly, I am a novice gardener. I have never had what I would consider to be a “successful” garden, but I continue to hold out hope that this will be the year!

I thought I would post my gardening adventures so you all could follow along with me. If you have advice or words of wisdom, I would love to hear it! The advice from others is invaluable.

Did you plant a garden this year? Tell me all about it in the comments! 🍅