 
<p style="text-align:center;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-69" href="http://anothernewseason.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/planning-the-garden/baking-day-gardening-1-037/"><img class="size-full wp-image-69 aligncenter" title="Planning the Garden" src="http://anothernewseason.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/baking-day-gardening-1-037.jpg" alt="Planning the Garden" width="500" height="375" /></a></p>

 We sat down recently and tried to tackle the planning for our garden this year.

Last year we lived in a tiny apartment and had only about 5x10 garden space. We grew tomatoes, peppers, carrots, onions snap peas, cucumbers, zucchini and lettuce. Of these listed vegetables we only had successful tomatoes, snap peas and lettuce. The rest were a flop!

We are so excited to have a 47'x30' garden area!! It's huge! We've decided to try using the <strong><a href="http://www.squarefootgardening.com/">Squarefoot Gardening</a></strong> technique in part of the garden. Hoping that this will cut down on the weeding and make it easier to harvest the vegetables. It sounds like a great way to go.

Here's the space we have to work with:

<a rel="attachment wp-att-64" href="http://anothernewseason.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/planning-the-garden/packing-012/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-64" title="Garden space" src="http://anothernewseason.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/packing-012.jpg" alt="Garden space" width="500" height="375" /></a>

Below are the two books that we used to do most of our research.

<a rel="attachment wp-att-65" href="http://anothernewseason.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/planning-the-garden/baking-day-gardening-1-040/"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-65" title="Gardening Books" src="http://anothernewseason.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/baking-day-gardening-1-040.jpg?w=300" alt="Gardening Books" width="300" height="225" /></a>

Next we sat down with graph paper and pens (we couldn't find pencils anywhere in the house, this was a bad way to go!). About 2 1/2 hours later we had little to show for our time. We just couldn't decide what to do. Finally we decided to stop over thinking it and came up with a plan. I broke out the laptop and decided to use my friendly Excel program instead of graph paper. I'm not really a pen and paper girl, and I just love Excel! So we created a plan.

<a rel="attachment wp-att-68" href="http://anothernewseason.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/planning-the-garden/baking-day-gardening-1-042/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-68" title="Garden Plan" src="http://anothernewseason.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/baking-day-gardening-1-042.jpg" alt="Garden Plan" width="500" height="375" /></a>

 

This weekend we headed to one of our <strong>favorite shops</strong> in Lancaster
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.spacetogrowgarden.com/index.htm"><img class="size-full wp-image-70 aligncenter" title="Space to Grow" src="http://anothernewseason.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/centerart.gif" alt="Space to Grow" width="336" height="224" /></a></p>

The owner, Dwight gave us tons of help and answered every question we had - and there were a lot of questions! If you live in the area you've got to stop in and check it out! It's right around the corner from Central Market!

So we bought a bunch of seeds and will start some seeds inside soon.

<a rel="attachment wp-att-71" href="http://anothernewseason.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/planning-the-garden/baking-day-gardening-1-039/"></a>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-75" href="http://anothernewseason.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/planning-the-garden/baking-day-gardening-1-038/"><img class="size-full wp-image-75 aligncenter" title="Seeds" src="http://anothernewseason.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/baking-day-gardening-1-038.jpg" alt="Seeds" width="500" height="666" /></a> </p>

We wanted to purchase our seeds from <a href="http://www.seedsofchange.com/default.asp">Seeds of Change</a> and were happy to see that Space to Grow sold them!

I'll be posting updates as we start our seeds inside and get the garden ready once it's warmer outside.

 Even Claire is getting in the gardening spirit - I wanted to get her excited about gardening so I bought her a little daisy plant at a craft store. She planted the seed a few weeks ago. We've been watering and watching the tiny pot every day. Last week to Claire's surprise a sprout popped up!

 

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-72" title="Sprout" src="http://anothernewseason.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/baking-day-gardening-1-047.jpg" alt="Sprout" width="500" height="666" />