Spring Garden, 2014

Beds prepped

Time to get the garden started again! It's been a little chaotic this year; I prepped the garden back in March, went to the Tilth sale the second weekend in March, and then life interfered with the garden in the form of my stepdaughter ending up in the hospital for a week and a half. And of course, that time coincided with the best weather for the entire month of March!

Beds prepped

I finally got back out into the garden this past weekend. Fortunately, the weather had been warm, and since I put my seedlings from Tilth out under a frost blanket, and uncovered them judiciously throughout the last few weeks, the seedlings had adequately hardened off. I finished off some weeding (pulling out blackberries), and prepped the beds with organic fertilizer. The raised beds are really paying off: the weeding is reduced every year, and the soil is improving greatly with each passing season as well. The beds are rich with organic matter, and full of worms, ranging in size from that of a straight pin to nightcrawlers as thick as my pinky, and at least a foot long!


(Top) Garlic, bok choy, purple broccoli; (bottom) giant red mustard,
black kale, Sutherland kale, broccoli, Romanescu broccoli,
purple kohlrabi

The weather was gorgeous on Sunday for the middle of the day, but then I had to go pick up my mother across town. By the time we got back, the clouds had started rolling in. I scrambled outside and started putting in the onions, but had to quit about halfway through the bed when big, fat, cold raindrops began pelting down.

Finally got out there yesterday afternoon to get a couple more beds done, and then again this morning to finish up. So everything is in the ground. Here's the end result!

Top bed: Peas -- Mammoth Sweet and Sugar Snaps

Onions, Swiss chard

Yellow Onions and Lettuces (Spotted leaf, Red Romaine,
Spotted Romaine, Merlot red leaf, Spotted oak leaf,
Australian yellow leaf, and Black-seeded Simpson)