March 19, 2009: Finally! I Get Outside to Garden.

Finally! Two lovely days in a row, which allowed me to get outside and begin the 2009 gardening year for real!

Yesterday I cleaned out and prepped four of the five 4x4 gardens (#5 still has 2008 carrots and spinach to be harvested), the 4x3 which will eventually be the potato bed, and two of the three 4x8 beds. There were no weeds to be found in the small beds, so all I did was loosen the soil with a hand cultivator and rake them level. The larger beds had never been planted, and there were a few healthy weeds in them, so they should be good to grow this year. The weeds took less than five minutes to pull from the loose compost that fills the beds.

I planted 4 Canby raspberries and 21 Tristar (day neutral) strawberries. I got shortchanged on the strawberries, as there were supposed to be 25 in the bunch (they were bare root) but there were only 21. To make it even, I put 20 in the 4x8 bed, spacing them 12" apart in all directions, and stuck the spare in with a blueberry bush. I'll let each plant put out one runner this year, which will help fill in the bed. In the 12 squares that were left in the strawberry bed, I planted 60 super Sweet onion sets and 53 yellow onion sets...don't ask me how it came out at 53!

All three pansies in the blue planter are growing, and the clematis is showing some green, so it must be spring!

In the evening, I made 4 seed mats, four varieties of carrots on 12”x12” sheets of newspaper, using Elmer’s Glue. Each mat contains 84 seeds for a total of 336. Once these dried, I set them aside for next day planting.

It was really easy to put a dab of glue every inch and then drop a seed into it. It didn't take long at all to fill the sheet of newspaper with 84 seeds.

Today I spread four bags (4 cf) of manure blend on the two pea beds and dug it in, then I planted 1 pkt. Alderman peas and 1 pkt. Super Sugar Snap peas. To plant the peas I open a trench about 4" deep and scatter the peas very closely in the bottom...I crowd them in pretty tightly, some even touching. Then I cover them with about an inch of soil and firm them in with the back of the rake. As they grow, and as the weather warms, I will continue to gradually fill the trench with soil. The Alderman (Tall Telephone) peas have a six-foot high chain link fence to climb. The Super Sugar Snap peas only have a 2' high wire fence, so some type of trellis will have to be added as they grow.

I also planted two 8-foot rows of spinach on 2” spacing along one edge of the raspberry bed. This will be harvested long before the raspberries need the room, and I will use the small thinnings for salads. I then planted the four carrot seed mats (336 seeds) and 52 beets in one 4x4 bed, leaving room in the center for three of the cabbage plants I have growing in the garage. Here is how I planted the carrot mats (this is an experiment...let's hope it works!)

First I leveled and wet down the soil and laid out the paper seed mats. There is one variety to each square, and I placed them in alphabetical order so as not to forget which was which.

Then I carefully sifted a layer of soil over the top. I think I got it a bit deeper than the 1/4" it should be, but I needed to cover the entire surface of the paper.

I then covered the entire area with boards. This is how I've started my carrots for years, as the boards keep the little seeds from drying out. It is very important to start checking for growth in a few days, as the boards must be removed as soon as the carrots begin sprouting.

My work isn't done for the week, so I hope the weather stays nice for just one more day. I have to buy and plant my seed potatoes, and plant the two new blueberry bushes I purchased today.

I had planned on turning the five 4x4 beds into one long 22' bed, but found I'd built them too well! Rather than take the chance of completely destroying them, I'll simply put some containers between the beds to hold the overflow. If all my peppers sprout, I'll definitely need extra space for them!

Happy gardening!