Garden Update, May 2015

My enthusiasm for the garden waxes and wanes. Last year I had no energy for it and poor Charles did all the work. This year my interest and investment are high. We've expanded the garden yet again, hopefully for the last time! Since we're planning on this being the final expansion. I spent lots of time and energy creating raised rows that are straight and neat. We'll eventually fence it all in to keep the bunnies out.

The work in progress

It was a time consuming process

The cardboard is laid in the walking paths, with raised row beds in between. The idea is to never walk on the planting area because that compacts the soil. So the cardboard marks the walking areas and serves to keep weeds from growing. There is a wider central walking path through the middle of the garden.

We also ripped out the raised beds that we put in several years ago, leaving only the original one that was here when we moved in. We filled those beds with fill dirt rather than good soil. They quickly became compacted and unproductive. No matter how much organic matter we tried to add they just were not producing. So with the expansion, the garden now goes right up to that area, and we'll probably plant more trees and berries in that region.

Moving the asparagus to the raised bed that remains

We tested our soil, which confirmed our suspicions that it was deficient in all the necessary nutrients but especially nitrogen. So we laid some organic fertilizers in the process of tilling and expanding the garden. Our other approach was to provide the nutrients through the crops we grow. We ordered seeds from our favorite company, Southern Exposure (located in nearby Louisa, VA) back in January, and I ordered a huge amount of peas. I wanted to plant the entire garden in them to provide some of the needed nitrogen.

Well, the garden prep took longer than expected, so I didn't get peas in as soon as I wanted. One Monday afternoon before it was supposed to rain, the girls helped me plant them all. They were super helpers and it went much more quickly than me planting alone.

Of course, they made a game of it

We got a nice rain the following day. But then we got rain the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. We got several inches of rain that week (which resulted in another incident of water in the basement), and I think those poor little pea seeds just rotted in the ground. Several weeks later we could find a few sprouted here and there in the garden, but that was it.

So I next sought out the last piece of the garden prep: the straw to mulch, insulate, and prevent growth of weeds. Unfortunately straw was hard to come by this year, though we eventually located bales for purchase at Ace Hardware in Harrisonburg. The straw turned out to be hay, with loads of seeds. I'm desperately hoping and praying those don't end up sprouting all over my garden! Our first pickup load of eight bales only covered half of our (now huge) garden. Charles went back the next day for another eight, and now the garden looks beautiful and ready for all the other yummy things we want to plant in it this year.

The stakes mark the planting rows

So, what are we planting? All sorts of things, of course! I ordered a garden planning book. It's a super helpful resource that helps you know what you should be doing week by week in the garden. It also provides space for making notes, year by year, about what you've done. So I'm using it as a resource and recording what we're planting and doing so that we can remember and adapt as needed for next year and beyond.

My trusty garden companion

As mentioned above, we ordered a ton of seeds back in January. Come March, I decided I wanted to actually be successful at starting my own seeds indoors this year and realized that would require the use of a grow light. In the past when we've tried starting seeds by the window, they just grow tall and leggy and never get to be anything substantial enough to succeed in the garden. So then we've wasted money on seeds and still need to buy plants from the nursery. Well, now we've got quite the set-up, if I do say so myself.

Our grow station, located in the playroom

On the left is my dome for seed germination. Underneath is a heating pad and to the left my spray bottle for lightly misting the fragile seedlings as they emerge. Once the seeds get a sufficient start, they get moved under the grow light on the right. I check on them daily to water them (the intense light dries them out pretty quickly) and to move the light up on its adjustable hangers so that it's always about 2-4 inches above the tops of the plants.

So far everything has gone great with this system. The pepper plants got started first and are what you see above. Next came tomatoes, though some required a second starting because they shriveled up once I moved them under the light, which I probably did just a bit too soon. The second batch have grown rapidly, such that some of them are now out from under the light and beginning to be hardened off for short spells outdoors.

Most recently I started our cucumbers, various squashes and pumpkins, watermelon, some herbs, and green beans. None of these really need to be started indoors since they grow well from direct sowing, but with the straw already on the garden we'll get better success with plants that can go in above the straw rather than trying to fight their way out through it.

Of course we'll also plant corn, and we have some potatoes that are drying and will soon be ready for planting. I ordered sweet potatoes to try again this year too. The last attempt at these a few years ago was a colossal disaster. The bunnies loved the plants, and they never could get established enough to produce anything noteworthy.

I'm beginning to see growth on spinach and lettuce that I planted earlier. I've also tried to plant some other greens in mulched beds near the patio: collards, swiss chard, and kale. So far they don't seem to be doing much, but I remain ever hopeful that these will succeed and that our larger garden will as well. Pray for my continued energy and enthusiasm for it throughout the growing season!

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The girls also worked on the butterfly garden around their playhouse recently. Here are some photos of Hannah planting a few types of flowers from seed.