Planning the Garden, New Location

Planning a garden is both stressful and a whole lot of fun!  Why both?  If you’re like me, you don’t have a ton of room, but there is so much you want to plant.  😀

Moving the Garden

My garden planning is way different this year from any year in the past.  Why?  Because I moved from South Florida to Tennessee — a really big difference as far as climate goes, not to mention things like sunlight, soil, etc.

For instance — I was trying to plant some daffodil bulbs (always wanted to grow them) several weeks ago.  I discovered that the soil here is very different from S Florida.  Down there, it was mostly sand — up here, it’s mostly red clay and rocks.  I did get some daffodil bulbs planted, but it was a losing battle.

I had a nice spot all picked out for the garden, about 12 feet by 7 feet, perfect sunny spot until afternoon after which I get dappled shade.  I even got a compost tumbler and had it set up nearby.  When the reality of the soil sunk in (so to speak), my plan to rototill and amend with compost, etc. got thrown out the window.  *sigh*

Grow Bags to the Rescue

Fortunately, I’ve had some really good experiences with grow bags, so when the planting in the ground plan went out the door, the grow bags stepped in.  I’ll have to get a lot of them, because now it opens up a few other planting spot options.  For example, I’ll have a great place away from the main growing area for some ornamental peppers.

How many grow bags you ask?  Probably at least 30.  No, not all will be peppers — gotta have some tomatoes, some cukes, lettuce and some for those daffodils!  Hmmm, might end up being more than 30.  I’ll have some 3 gallon, some 5-gallon and a few 7-gallon grow bags.  Thought about some 10-gallon, and I haven’t decided.

I actually already bought a few 3-gallon grow bags and 5-gallon grow bags, because I wanted to re-acquaint myself with the sizes before getting a lot more.  The 3-gallon will be be great for the ornamentals and some of the smaller-growing peppers.  The larger-growing will need the 5-gallon.

(Note:  If the above links are somehow not working, try these for the 3-gallon, the 5-gallon and the 7-gallon grow bags.  Oh, and the compost tumbler as well.)

Climate Differences

This will be really interesting.  For where I lived in S Florida, we had two short growing seasons — from about mid-February to late April, then from late August to November.  From May to late August the plants just keel over — if not from the heat and humidity, then from diseases attributable to the heat and humidity.

(But due to the number of hurricanes we’ve had come near to where I lived, I had to quit growing in the August -> November season.)  November to February was too iffy — sometimes we had cool winters, sometimes we had freezes and I lost most of my plants.

Now that I am in USDA zone 7a, my last average frost date is around the middle of April, and I can expect the first frost somewhere in October.  Instead of two shorter seasons, I have one longer one.

OK, enough about the move!  The next post will be about the peppers I am planning to grow this year.