It’s Spring, and that means garden planting. That also means time to get to work preparing the garden beds for the season.
Seed starting
A couple weeks ago, I started some seed starting. I managed to get out and get Brandywine, Cherokee Purple and Black cherry tomatoes all planted, along with some jalapenos and cilantro.
The three types of tomatoes I planted were all seeds I had saved myself from last year.
I took tomatoes that had rotted and dried on the vine, and opened them up and took the seeds. I’m excited to see how they will do.
There are other things I would have liked to have started, but I had gotten behind on my planning and so my cabbage I didn’t get started.
I actually would have liked to have already had my tomatoes started, but had to make do with then.
Garden bed preparation
I’m still running late as far as my Spring gardening is concerned. But there’s only so much time in a day, and my day job keeps me tied up on the computer when I’d rather be out in the garden.
Last year, the garden suffered. It was another late start, and the beds did not do well.
I had bought a garden mix soil from a garden center, but it didn’t have enough organic material in it, and I didn’t amend it well. Because of that, the soil compacted horribly. The onions never took off, the spring radishes and carrots both did horrible because of it.
I even feel like the other plants suffered as well.
So this year, I want to add composted manure and mushroom compost to the beds. Hopefully, we’ll get a better garden with the extra time in the garden.
Amending and planting
Because time is always a constraint, I decided to address the first bed, then plant my seeds I wanted done. I could then move on to the other beds, or do them another time if needed.
With the first bed, I started with a hoe and just worked to break up and loosen the soil manually. While working the soil, I added 2 bags of composted manure, and a bag of mushroom compost. I turned it all over with a shovel.
Then raked it smooth and found the large clumps and got rid of any of the bigger dirt clots.
Then it was time to plant the seeds.
We had 2 kinds of carrots, 2 kinds of radishes and some cabbage to plant.
We planted Rainbow carrots, Giant of Sicily radishes, Golden Acre cabbage, Coral Carrots, and Early Scarlet Globe radishes.
Potatoes
Once that was done, I moved on to potatoes.
Last year we planned to try growing potatoes in these old blue plastic barrels. We took them and cut them in thirds, but never got around to doing anything with them. I wasn’t able to find indeterminate potatoes to plant.
This year, I got the potatoes ordered early and they got here a few days ago, so I wanted to get them planted this weekend..
I put in dirt, and leaves and composted manure and the like, then added potatoes, then added more.
The plan will be to see how these go. As they grow, I will add more soil to them and then blue rings till they’re full.
Hopefully, we’ll get a good harvest. I realize I may not.
I’ve seen where these potato towers are supposed to work. I’ve seen where they don’t.
I think it may have something to do with the type of potato used as seed.
So, we’re trying it out and will see how it goes. If it goes well, great. If not, I’ll know.
I put some potatoes in one of the raised beds to see how they do in the bed verses the barrel. I’m excited to see. I figured I could do multiple tests in a single year. I hope what I learn this year will put me in a better place next year.
Finishing up
Once the potatoes were in the ground, I went ahead and got some spinach and some lettuce planted, and then moved on to the last garden bed make sure it was ready for the season.
We’ll see how this year goes. It may not do as well as I would like, but I expect it to do better last year.
And that’s sorta how gardening goes.
Do better than the year before, and before it, things are going well!