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March 2012 and my garden
Mar. 24th, 2012 12:42 amToday it rained all day so I didn't dig as planned. As far as the digging goes, I'm so far behind schedule that I'm thinking of scaling back and just going with four raised beds instead of the planned six. I dunno -- we'll see how April looks.
Really, March has freaked me the fuck out. I mean, I haven't been talking about it much at all, but it is just so absolutely weirdly not normal. It was like a switch flipping right from February to May. It's very unsettling how I can expect something and then when it happens I see that, no, I really did not believe that it would happen. I am not ready. Please, I want my normal world back.
We're supposed to have a dip next week with a little frost and then it'll get back up in the 60's again. I hope to have at least all four of my beds dug by the this time next week. I've also got the wood for my bee hive. I still need to get my fencing so that critters don't eat my noms.
As I've mentioned before, the soil that I'm working with is a heavy clay soil. I am improving the soil by using the double-dig biointensive raised bed method. I won't be aiming to achieve a true "living sponge cake" since I'm not sure how long I'll be able to garden at this place, but I'll do what I can with the leaves and manure that I've got. What I'm doing is digging up the heavy, clayey soil and mixing it with manure and last year's fall leaves. Then I've covered it over with a black tarp and let it set for a few weeks. Then I've turned it all over and mixed it all up. Tomorrow, I'll turn it all over again. It's kindof like a gigantor compost project, really. Last time when I turned it over, the leaves hadn't broken down very much, so hopefully this heat will have helped that some. And I bought a hoe, so tomorrow I'll go over and bust it all up some more.
In the mean time, my flats are all doing well. Except for the beets. They have pretty much given up the ghost. So I bought more beet seeds and we'll try that again. The rutabagas are hanging in there! But I think that I have only five rutabagas, so I need to plant more of those, too.
But lots of tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, cabbages, and onion. I'm going to plant the peas, melons, and beans directly in the soil.
Huzzah! Garden!
Really, March has freaked me the fuck out. I mean, I haven't been talking about it much at all, but it is just so absolutely weirdly not normal. It was like a switch flipping right from February to May. It's very unsettling how I can expect something and then when it happens I see that, no, I really did not believe that it would happen. I am not ready. Please, I want my normal world back.
We're supposed to have a dip next week with a little frost and then it'll get back up in the 60's again. I hope to have at least all four of my beds dug by the this time next week. I've also got the wood for my bee hive. I still need to get my fencing so that critters don't eat my noms.
As I've mentioned before, the soil that I'm working with is a heavy clay soil. I am improving the soil by using the double-dig biointensive raised bed method. I won't be aiming to achieve a true "living sponge cake" since I'm not sure how long I'll be able to garden at this place, but I'll do what I can with the leaves and manure that I've got. What I'm doing is digging up the heavy, clayey soil and mixing it with manure and last year's fall leaves. Then I've covered it over with a black tarp and let it set for a few weeks. Then I've turned it all over and mixed it all up. Tomorrow, I'll turn it all over again. It's kindof like a gigantor compost project, really. Last time when I turned it over, the leaves hadn't broken down very much, so hopefully this heat will have helped that some. And I bought a hoe, so tomorrow I'll go over and bust it all up some more.
In the mean time, my flats are all doing well. Except for the beets. They have pretty much given up the ghost. So I bought more beet seeds and we'll try that again. The rutabagas are hanging in there! But I think that I have only five rutabagas, so I need to plant more of those, too.
But lots of tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, cabbages, and onion. I'm going to plant the peas, melons, and beans directly in the soil.
Huzzah! Garden!