Veggie garden prep

I love the tidiness and the promise held in a spring garden. Don't get me wrong, I love the rambliness of late summer also, but there is something very calming about being able to work with the blank canvas of a newly cleaned garden. Since the median garden that Natalie built is right outside of my front door and she is no longer using it, I have decided to take it on this year. I had so much fun perusing the catalog from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange that it became fairly difficult to choose which seeds to purchase. The only consolation was that I can- God willing- try other varieties next season. My plan this year is to have a simple spring garden with peas and lettuce, then plant a 'summer in winter' garden in June, with veggies grown in the summer that I can store through the winter. I already have have Queen Anne black eye pea seeds, Peking black crowder pea seeds, and I plan on growing paste tomatoes. Of course, I will also have flowers- Selma Suns Sunflowers for the birds and Tashkent marigolds to repel destructive insects and nematodes.

Last Sunday I went in to the garden to pull the weeds that had crept in over the last season, and found that some beets, daikon radishes and Tatsoi were still alive! After a very cold and snowy winter, there were even some tiny carrots. I pulled all of the plants, kept some beets and radishes to eat and replanted some of the smaller beets. (I am not sure the beets will do anything- plants with large tap roots usually do not respond well to being transplanted, but hey- it was worth a try.) I spread a bag of Black Kow composted manure which is a wonderful organic nitrogen source. On top of that I added two bags each of leaf mold and mushroom compost- all purchased at my lovely neighborhood Azalea garden center.

I placed a metal trellis in the center for the snow peas to climb, and sprinkled a package of salad greens in the rest of the bed. I am keeping the top consistently moist and today I saw the first little cotyledons breaking through the top of the soil. Let the riot begin!