New Raised Bed

I have been using an 8x4ft raised bed made out of treated wood for the last couple of years. Finally, I replaced it with a new untreated cedar bed from Natural Yards. I had good luck with these before (my smaller raised beds).

I really like the way I don't have to use any tools to put them together. They fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and you just put a pin into the pre-drilled holes to hold them together.

I was careful to put new black tarp under the rocks around the perimeter, and also leveled them out with some sand. This wasn't really necessary, but I really enjoy not having weeds growing around the raised beds.

Now all I need is dirt!

Compost

Forgot to mention the compost cover crop I planted last fall. As you can see, the "compost" grew just fine. Here is a picture from the end of January.

The best thing to do is pull up these plants and compost them in the bin. But I was too lazy and just turned them under. This is considered the second best thing to do. Just make sure they're turned deep enough not to grow back. I turned these under on January 23.

I also picked up some free compost from the dump on March 14, and put a pretty healthy layer on top of these planter boxes and mixed it in a little bit.

Finally, I direct-sowed some seeds that are expected to be ready for harvest in 30 days (Mid-April). That will leave time for my seedlings to grow up in their flats and I can transplant to these planter boxes. The seeds I direct sowed today include:

1. Snow Peas (5), Oregon Sugar Pod II from Bountiful gardens 2007.
2. Baby Bok Choi (2), Toy Choi Hybrid from Burpee 2009.
3. Radish (2), German Giant from Burpee 2009.
   

Seed Starts

Started 2 flats of seeds in wet seed starting mix today. Picture shown before I covered these seeds with a layer of dry seed starting mix (it wicks up the wetness from the bottom quickly, without disturbing seed placement).

One flat contains the hearty melon type plants. They will sprout over about a week and be ready to transplant into the raised bed by the end of March.

The second flat contains less hearty tomato type seeds. They will grow a bit slower and need to be transplanted into larger containers before being transplanted outside, probably in mid to late April.

Here is how the seeds are laid out in two small flats:











Roughly going left to right, the first flat contains:

1. Watermelon, Sugar Baby (1) from Bountiful Gardens 2008.
2. Honeydew, Orange Sorbet Hybrid (3) from Burpee 2008.
3. Crenshaw, Early hybrid (3) from Burpee 2009.
   
4. Butternut Squash, Butter boy hybrid (1) from Burpee 2006.
5. Cantaloupe, Honey Bun hybrid (1) from Burpee 2009.

Again, roughly going left to right, the second flat contains:

1. Eggplant, black beauty (2) from Burpee 2009.
2. Cherry Tomato, sugar snack hybrid (2) from Burpee 2009.
3. Tomato, Roma VF (2) from Burpee 2009.
4. Red Bell Pepper, Chinese Giant (2) from Burpee 2008.
5. Tomato, Brandywine (2) from Bountiful Gardens 2008.
   

Weeding

Trying to get ready for the planting season by pulling weeds. Sigh, this picture is just one of about 5 loads of weeds I pulled. Still plenty more.

On the positive side, it appears weeds have not flowered or gone to seed yet. Also, dirt was still soft from the rains. So the time is/was right (first weekend in March).

Also put copper spray on the nectarine tree last week. I think it's a little late though because there were flower buds on the tree already.

Lawn seed

We pulled up sod, roto-tilled, and raked-in Eco-Lawn seed on a 10x20ft strip behind our house around November 28. Here's a picture of our first watering.

We hope that this lawn will be weed resistant and require less water. If it looks good this Spring, maybe we'll use it in more places of our yard, along with native and drought resistant plants.

Guavas

We have a pineapple guava bush growing next to our fence. Thought it was just a hedge until these things started to fall off into the lawn around mid November.

This year, the individual guavas are pretty large and sweet. One was about the size of a lemon, but sweeter, of course.

Garden Wrap Up

Still growing some Arugula in the Earth Box. I expect I can continue through November, until we have frost at night. But the patio is warm in the mornings, and may be protected from frost, so I'll give it a try as far into the winter as possible.




Here is my last tomato plant. We ate all those red tomatoes in arugula salads during all last week (October 25-30). Some animal (raccoon?) helped finish off some of the tomatoes we didn't get to.





Today, I pulled up the tomato plant and chopped it up for the compost bin. I was so happy and excited to see actual compost in the bin! This is the first time I "turned" the compost. It is not a "hot" compost pile, but it is still compost never the less!