Thursday, May 6, 2010

Fish for Fertilizer

It's that time of year again! Garden time! Yahoo! I love it all. The planning, the planting, the maintaining, and especially the harvesting. Well, maybe I don't enjoy the weeding too much. But that's what the kids are for, right? Tee, hee, hee. This being only our 2nd summer in TN I'm still getting used to things. I miss the rich, free soil back home. There we decided how big our garden would be by how much of our yard we wanted to dig up. Here it's all about $$. We have to have raised beds & containers since the soil is like clay. This year we were able to add a second raised bed. Yay! After a trip to Home Depot I got started the next day on my planting.

That same night we bought the plants (Monday) I bought a 2lb. package of frozen fish at Walmart. (This is just one of the fillets.)


I partially thawed it and then cut it into bite-sized chunks.
One fillet I left alone for Sweet Pea's lunch. =0)

Next I went outside to see how my planting from last week was doing.
LOOK! My lettuce & spinach have sprouted!

Dave roped off the new raised bed. I wanted smaller squares so I used a stick to draw lines in the dirt.


I also planted some Petunias in my great, big planter.


Elvis generously added in some worms.

All done!
Now we have something beautiful to look at & smell when we relax on the back patio.

Here's the planting I did on Monday. It took quite awhile b/c for each I first dug a hole. Sometimes I needed to remove some of the clay soil on the bottom. Then I partially filled the hole with Miracle Grow soil. After that I tossed in a handful of the fish pieces. Lastly I put the tomato plant in and covered it up with soil. We now have 18 tomato plants & 4 pepper plants. I'm excited & hoping they all flourish & produce like bunnies! Lol!


4 comments:

Mama Teaching 3 said...

I will so try the fish next year. I am so worried the doggies would dig it up.

Rhonda said...

I just love your raised garden bed. Those petunias are pretty. I am loving this spring weather and all of the new life that has come with it.

Julia said...

So jealous... I can't wait until it's time to plant our garden. We still have a few more weeks ;) Everything looks great!

Megan said...

Kristine,
This is beautiful and inspiring! Our planting is just around the corner. The fish is an awesome idea (reminds me of Squanto! ;)Chicken poop is our magic fertilizer; My boys had so much fun pretending they were farmers and picking it up from my friend's house with their daddy. Have you ever tried landscaper's canvas for weed prevention? We buy about $20 worth each year and cover our entire planting area (our garden quite large now). I map out the garden and use scissors to cut slits for my plants/seeds. I literally pick a handful of weeds all season!!! Not sure if that would work with raised beds, but I thought it might be worth a try... Happy planting!!