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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Spring has Sprung!!!!

My Garden is Started!
 I have had a garden for the past 20 years.  Some have been successful and some a total failure.  More success than failure I must admit.  I don't usually start my garden until after Good Friday.  I don't really remember why but that has been my rule.  MOMD has not had a garden before and has been really anxious to get it started this year.  He is so willing to do the heavy work in the garden, tilling, toting soil, weeding etc.  My son (the carpenter), built my raised bed the spring after we moved in in 2004.  I live in a garden home community and I have a rather large lot but I didn't know if my neighbors would be happy with me planting a garden so I tried to make it a little  nicer than just digging a hole and putting a plant in it.  My plan is to increase my garden yearly adding more area to plant until I have it the size I want it.  I have tried a few experiments over the past couple of years that have not worked so MOMD tilled up a plot to double the size of my raised bed.


This bed will take a little more work to get it up to par but this is a great start.  MOMD tilled the area several times to break up the lousy soil that is there.  We have amended it with some garden soil and manure.  We also put some worms in it to help aerate the soil.  We have a little more work to do before we can put the rest of the plants in but we have potatoes and onions already in the ground.  
We also put worms in the raised bed as well.  The soil in the raised bed is really rich and has been prolifically producing for six years now.  We have radishes, lettuce, sweet banana peppers, jalapeños and tomatoes planted in there.  We may add a couple of things like carrots or herbs but this bed is essentially finished.  



We have been composting since October and the compost has been going directly into the garden but we wanted a separate compost pile so we built a bin.  I don't know how successful it will be, since I have never composted before but we are enjoying the process.


The compost bin is built from a wooden pallet, found in the garbage, and fencing wire.  We don't have trees on the property so we walked down to the fishin' hole with two garbage bags and gathered leaves to place on the bottom of the bin to get started.  We lined the bottom of the pallet with a thick stack of newspaper before putting the leaves in.  We also added manure and soil along with some grass clippings and composting from the kitchen.  We are still tweaking the container but we are having fun learning.  Problem solving is the best learning tool!!!
We will be adding more vegetables in the coming weeks.  I will keep you posted on the progress.  Do you have  a garden?  What do you plant?  Do you have any tips?  Post a comment and tell me all about your garden.  I would love to see it.

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