April Garden Update

The blog has been quiet over the last few weeks because there has just been so much to do. We've moved into our new house with all the furniture and this week was my school vacation. I spent it organizing to make certain parts of the house livable while we slowly master the rest. We were even able host our church group this Friday night. In the midst of organizing the house I was able to do some gardening. I kept taking photos but never got them on the blog. So here's a few photos that show my progress.

Here's the photo I snapped on 3/27 which shows my blank slate.

By April 3rd I had started digging though there was plenty other moving tasks I should have been doing. I used tent stakes and yarn to mark out my first three foot bed. I loosened the soil, layered on chicken manure from the chicken coop and then dug the path down and mounded it on top of the bed. Seedlings went in the ground.

By April 21st we had moved the cold frame. My husband helped me stake out the beds so that I can dig them in which ever order is needed for my planting plan and schedule. The cold frame went over most of the early seedlings. I almost finished the first bed, but the thick mat of dandelions made it frustrating work. Over two days I dug the next bed for the onions. I put around 80 white onions and over 230 yellow onions in the ground in the bed behind the cold frame.
On the 22nd I dug the third bed, a whole bed for peas and beans at almost the northern most end of the garden. My very last bed is where I'll put my perennial vegetables like the rhubarb, sorrel, strawberries, raspberries and it is extra wide. The pea bed is the next one. It was easier to dig because it wasn't infested with the dandelions like the southern end of the garden. I got my peas in that day and later planted radishes in front of the peas. I found a piece of chicken wire that was the length of the bed so I strung the whole thing up on posts for the beginnings of a trellis. You can barely see the stakes at the back of the bed. We'll see how high the peas grow.

That's all the digging I've gotten done so far. On the 23rd I planted more lettuce, beets and chard in the first bed next to the cold frame. I think the next bed I need to dig will be the spot for the raspberries because I'm supposed to pick them up at the end of the week. After that it will be the brassica bed.

I have also been taking care of my indoor seedlings. I transplanted all my tomatoes into their own cups. I have almost 50 tomato plants! I have been hardening off my early tomatoes and hope to get them in the ground in the next two weeks. I also started some cosmos, bachelors buttons, marigolds and other flower seeds I found at the dollar store 4 for $1. Looking at my seed starting calendar it is time to start cucumbers but I don't have space under the lights.