March 27, 2013 - Another Busy Day in the Garden

It was raining lightly when I woke up this morning, gray and gloomy but 50 degrees.  I convinced myself there would be no gardening today, but right after breakfast the sun came out!  It turned into a lovely, warm, sunny day, so I donned my old sweat pants and gardening gloves and headed out to the garden.

I couldn't put off planting the Yukon gold potatoes any longer, so I started digging holes in the bed I had tilled yesterday.  This potato bed wouldn't be as large as the one I planted last week, because I'm at that area of the North Garden where there are still old roots from the maple tree that used to reside there.  I still managed to get 28 hills of potatoes planted, and I'm sure that will be more than enough for us.

Next to the potato bed, I dug a 1' wide future cabbage bed.  I think there might still be room for a wide row of leeks, if the seedlings ever get large enough to plant.  That will be all that can be planted in that section though, as the big roots are right at the surface.  I set a couple of concrete blocks over the surface roots, and zip tied a garden sprinkler to them.  The oscillating sprinkler waters most of the North garden.  Moving on toward the east, I dug all the soil from the old barrel that held winter squash plants last year, and moved it out of the garden.  It will be repurposed as a container for cucumbers, up against the fence.  The soil that was removed was mounded right in the middle of that garden section, and will be planted with three hills of butternut squash in May.

Yukon Gold potato bed, framed in bright red yarn, future cabbage bed to the right, possible spot for the leeks, then the sprinkler setup.  The hose is coiled over the mound of soil that will be planted to squash.

Next I went to work on the strawberry bed, cutting off all the dead leaves, and doing general cleanup.  I sprinkled on some fertilizer, then scratched it in with my long handled cultivator (which kept losing its "claw").

Strawberry bed cleaned up and fertilized.  Notice last year's broccoli at the end of the strawberry bed.  It was one long stem, with broccoli growing at each end, so I covered the center of the stem and held it down with the frogs on a rock.  It's loaded with shoots!

A bit of leveling, weed hoing and cleanup of the debris, and the North Garden was all ready for future plantings.  I hooked up the hose to the sprinkler and checked it out to make sure it was in the right spot for complete coverage, then called it a day.

As I exited through the east garden gate, I rolled it over my foot for the hundredth time.  Some day maybe I'll learn to keep my foot out of the way.  Then again, maybe I won't.