Garden 2010!

I am so soo excited to garden this year. Its the first spring we've owned a house and so the first time I can plant in the ground (vs pots) so I'm going to be able to do so much more than my usual 2 or 3 things. I had a really really hard time paring it down to a reasonable amount, I wanted to grow everything. But I also don't want to over-do it and put more on my plate then I can handle. We have a 5 foot deep bed that's...oh I cant even guess how long but LONG at the side of our yard so I could fit a LOT but we decided to start small(er) for the first year.

We're planting:
2 5 ft rows of Lettuce
2 5 foot rows of Spinach
2 5 foot rows of Peas
2 5 foot rows of Green Beans
9 Brandywine Tomatos
6 Butternut Squash
9 Bell Peppers
(plus we started a strawberry patch last year that is already coming back up)

This weekend we decided what to grow, how much, and bought our seeds, plus a tray to start our tomatoes and peppers indoors, organic compost, and a few materials for building our pea trellis, and tomato stakes. We measured out where to plant everything, turned the soil, and dug up a few weeds on our main garden bed. (we decided to put the squash in a different section of the yard since it needs so much room and also tends to take over)

NEXT weekend (March 7th) we are starting our tomatoes and peppers indoors and adding our compost to the main garden bed.

The weekend of March 14th we are building our pea trellis' and finishing adding the compost if we weren't able to before.

The weekend of March 21st we are planting our first rows of peas, spinach, and lettuce.

Then we get a gardening break weekend before starting our second rows of peas, spinach, and lettuce on April 4th. (I'm curious to see which planting grows better and also hoping that will keep us from getting ALL of our produce at once)

Then we have 4 weekends to get our squash hills ready. We are going to have to remove some existing plants and turn that soil and probably add some topsoil and compost before we can make the hills. We're also thinking about digging a divider down into the soil to separate our strawberries from the rest...they are already growing out of their designated area.

Then (finally!) May 9th we will be planting our beans and tomatoes.

May 16th our peppers and squash.

I tried to spread all the work out because with 2 small babies in the house I just cant spend hours upon hours outdoors. Well, Zeke wouldnt mind but Malachi might.

Anyways, I hope I get a good yield for all of this work. I know me and if I have a total fail year I'm not going to be willing to try again. And if anyone is a gardening expert (which I am absolutely NOT) or even just a teensy bit experienced let me know if you see anything totally wrong in my plan. Something along the lines of "that is way too much squash" or "not enough peppers" or "lettuce will absolutely not grow if she plants it then". I'm afraid, for example, that Im jumping the gun on my warm weather planting, but its been such a mild warm year...