Up is the way to go!

On the way to work on the bus in the morning I pass the road to my garden. I try and sit on the side of the bus so that I can look down it. There isn't much to see. It is dark and usually raining and sometimes fog that pools over the area. Still it comforts me to know that it is there. I have renewed it for another year and I think of it silently waiting for me.

Last weekend I was craving some of my lovely veggies and vowed that next year I would make better use of my space and try and grow more things vertically if possible. I actually went to a farmers market and bought some misshapen carrots. At least mine aren't the only ones!

My veggies are all but gone with the exception of some beets that I have in the freezer and some pesto sauce from my basil. If I had been smarter I could have some beans and peas frozen as well as kale. I didn't get many peas but I hate to freeze them as they are so good. I can't imagine having so many that you couldn't eat them! Carrots don't really freeze that well I have found but I think I read somewhere that you can store them in sand or something. Again, something to look into.

This I think is a great idea for a raised garden bed and I found the idea again on Pintrest, my favorite source.

It would work great in my small garden. There would still be room to walk through but I could grow beans and peas up it and still have lots of garden real estate left over.

My potato patch could also use a bit of reorganization. Last year I bought a bag of seed potatoes and they took up way too much space. Plus the fact that I didn't cut them. My reasoning was that I didn't have very much room and if I cut them I would have needed more space. Well, next year I might do something like this..

Grow your potatoes in towers (Pintrest again). Brilliant. I have seen others that might work better using wire and straw so I'm not sure which way I will go but definitely up I think is the best choice.

This was an inventive way to grow tomatoes from one of my fellow gardeners. Can you tell we get a lot of rain here? It is cute but not much protection from the wind and blight. A for effort. I'm thinking of something with pvc pipes, clamps and plastic for next year.