Black Gumbo

So we planned to be on time this year getting our garden in the ground. The over-ripe topsoil with un-composted compost from the year before last is now just good, healthy dirt. We let 2008 go by without planting much due to pressing schedules, unforeseen things, and other calls upon time, but we busted up the fallow ground this weekend and now will be growing food again. We've nearly missed our window to plant on time, and according to the various planting calendars should have had stuff in the ground between January and last weekend. So we're a week late on the May first stuff. Well, that's better than we've done in the past.

We loved the cowpeas so much that I will be planting a bunch of them this year as well. I ordered seed from Baker Creek last December and am ready to try a few varieties. I love these things. They grow like wildfire, produce all through our heated summers, and choke out everything that is not supposed to be in the garden. We'll need that weed-shading feature considering the amount of weeds we've removed this weekend - surely the roots and seeds of a fallow year will bring trouble this year. Mulch and vigorous plants will hopefully make weeding easier.

We have three 4'x8' raised beds, not too terribly much for food production, but enough to supplement with a load of beans! That's just shy of 100 square feet of space. Two of the three plots will be the cowpeas, I plan to grow some other stuff in the third plot.

We don't strictly garden by the square foot method but we do pack the plants in. With a little SFG method applied, we make our three plots produce well. At least it has in the past. I hope to add another area of cowpeas along my back fence since these cowpea seeds grow literally in the yard when dropped. I'll use them to climb and cover my ugly Ike-damaged fence.

Caleb wants to grow some Bell Peppers and I plan on Jalapenos. We will grow these in containers, and I might plants a couple of tomatoes in pots this year.

So there's our garden update, after a fell year of no garden. 'Bout time!