How to Update Your Garden Annually for Flowers, Veggies, or Vines

Welcome,

UPDATE: 22 June 2008 I have posted photos below of my first bumper crop. The plants are nice and full and are still producing. I still have more on the vines growing.

In this Instructable I will show you what I did to update the soil, plants, and watering system. I hope that this Instructable will inspire you to create and or update your own garden. You can update your garden annually for planting Flowers, Veggies, Vines, or what ever you would like to plant there. You will also find a few ideas of how to stay GREEN in your garden. I did not use any chemical fertilizers in this garden, it is all natural.

You will see pics of various stages of the other Instructables that I have made that go hand in hand with this one. But this Instructable deals with the actual gardening part I have added links below if you are interested in looking at the other related Instructables.

In Sept of 2007 I created the Instructable Building a Raised Garden: The Mator Patch. I recently added a new Instructable The Doggy Garden Fence which consists of building a simple fence from scratch, which of course keeps my dogs out. They did some serious damage last year. So this year I repaired and upgraded. They wanted and area of their own in the garden so I also added The Doggy Retreat

Step 1: How to Update Your Garden Annually for Flowers, Veggies, or Vines

Welcome,
In this Instructable I will show you what I did to update the soil, plants, and watering system. I hope that this Instructable will inspire you to create and or update your own garden. You can update your garden annually for planting Flowers, Veggies, Vines, or what ever you would like to plant there. You will also find a few ideas of how to stay GREEN in your garden. I did not use any chemical fertilizers in this garden, it is all natural.

You will see pics of various stages of the other Instructables that I have made that go hand in hand with this one. But this Instructable deals with the actual gardening part I have added links below if you are interested in looking at the other related Instructables.

In Sept of 2007 I created the Instructable Building a Raised Garden: The Mator Patch. I recently added a new Instructable The Doggy Garden Fence which consists of building a simple fence from scratch, which of course keeps my dogs out. They did some serious damage last year. So this year I repaired and upgraded. They wanted and area of their own in the garden so I also added The Doggy Retreat

Step 2: Clear, Churn and Turn the Dirt in Your Garden

In this step you will need to clear and churn the dirt in your garden from the preious year.

Clear out and left over dead plants or roots from the previous years crop. you can use your hand or the shovel.

Next churn/turn the dirt over in the garden constantly to loosen the soil. Dig down and churn to at least 6 inches the deeper the better down to a foot deep would be ideal.

Once you have your garden cleared e soil loosened use a rake to smooth out the surface.

Step 3: Planting

Just before you put your plants in the ground visually measure the dirt in your garden and see if you have space to add mulch. If you don't then you may need to remove some dirt from your garden. This may depend on your garden setup.

Next space your plants accordingly to insctuctions that may or may not have come with your plants. It also depends on how big your garden is for proper spacing. As you can see in my garden space is limited, so I just tried to provide equal spacing for each plant.

I bought one tomato plant that was planted adjacent to the garden but still in the garden area (see pics).

I also bought a 6 pack of Anahiem peppers, these went into the main garden area.

I was lucky enough to save my 4 bell pepper plants from the previous year. The dogs nearly killed them though, but they are making a strong come back. They are also planted in the main garden area.

As I stated I spaced them out evenly the best that I could.
The Anahiem peppers are in the back and bell peppers in the front.

Go ahead and plant your plants now.

Step 4: Run the Irrigation

Time to run the irrigation for the plants.

I hope this doens't confuse anyone but, these are the same pictures from the previous step but are also used in this step.

I tapped into my exsiting landscape irrigation system to water my plants. I bought a 50 ft roll of 1/4 tubing from Home Depot. I had to run about 15-20 ft of tubing from the front yard to get to my area in the backyard. I just buried the tubing in the rocks on the side of my house so you can't see it. I routed the tubing through the backyards drain hole and put a t-section splitter to run it to my tomatoe plant and the other side went to the peppers.

Each plant has its own respective branch or irrigation tubing running to it. This is where I added most of the T sections. Each branch also has an adjustable valvle drip head on it. This way I can adjust water flow accordingly for each plants needs.
I also used the diagonal cutters and the knife to cut the tubing hose.

Once I had all of the drip system tubing in place I tested and adjusted each drip valve.

Next I placed big river rocks over certain parts of the tubing incase the tubing was pulled on, this helps keep the tubing in place.

Now it's time for mulch.

Step 5: Place Your Mulch Around Your Plants.

You may ask - Why put down mulch? The reason is to keep moisture in and also it keeps the extreme heat (of Arizona) off of the roots.

Make sure you don't use manure because it will kill your plants in short order. Put Manure down at the end of the harvest season so it can have more time to rot and will be ready for the following spring. Then you can put your plants in it.

You want a nice thick layer of mulch I have about 3-4 inches deep. It is really working well for my plants.

I bought a 3 cubic ft bag Nature's Way Composted Mulch from Home Depot for about $4.20
It was perfect for my area. You may need to plan accordingly to your area.

Step 6: How to Update Your Garden Annually for Flowers, Veggies, or Vines

Welcome,
In this Instructable I will show you what I did to update the soil, plants, and watering system. I hope that this Instructable will inspire you to create and or update your own garden. You can update your garden annually for planting Flowers, Veggies, Vines, or what ever you would like to plant there. You will also find a few ideas of how to stay GREEN in your garden. I did not use any chemical fertilizers in this garden, it is all natural.

You will see pics of various stages of the other Instructables that I have made that go hand in hand with this one. But this Instructable deals with the actual gardening part I have added links below if you are interested in looking at the other related Instructables.

In Sept of 2007 I created the Instructable Building a Raised Garden: The Mator Patch. I recently added a new Instructable The Doggy Garden Fence which consists of building a simple fence from scratch, which of course keeps my dogs out. They did some serious damage last year. So this year I repaired and upgraded. They wanted and area of their own in the garden so I also added The Doggy Retreat