Saturday, April 26, 2014

A Hard Days Work

Today I put in a lot of work in my garden plots. I started the morning by picking up compost at a city compost center, which is free to residents. I filled my husbands eight foot truck bed 3/4 full with compost. My arms felt like jello by the time we were done and then we had to off load it at the garden. My one plot is divided into four large raised beds and a strawberry patch. I started tilling the raised beds and then added the fresh compost. I will be planting two of the beds with tomatoes and the other two will be planted with winter squash and pumpkins. I thought I lost my strawberry plants from the extremely cold winter we had, but to my surprise they are growing nicely. Last weekend I spent time weeding and cleaning up the strawberry bed. I also moved some of the new plants from last years runners to fill in empty spots. Today I also planted 16 broccoli plants, 6 Chinese cabbages and 4 Deadon cabbages. The garlic, onions and shallots are all growing nicely. I am growing yellow, purple and green snow peas this year and they are also growing nicely. The sugar snap peas I planted did not germinate because I think a rodent dug them up and ate them. I only see two seeds that germinated and the rest of the ground is dug up along the fence where I planted them. It was a very tiring day, but very productive. I always say that getting your garden ready for the season is tiring hard work, but I love to stand back and admire the end product. I am really enjoying the spring flowers, they make me happy.  Happy Gardening!

Compost pile
 
Raised bed that is tilled and composted
 
Strawberry bed

Snow Peas

Deadon Cabbage

Elephant Garlic

Soloist and Bilko Chinese Cabbage





6 comments:

  1. Nice pics!

    I wish my city would give out free compost!!! =)

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    1. Thanks Jay! I have to admit I live in a borough that doesn't offer compost, however I have a friend who lives in a city that does offer it and he helped me out. That's what garden friends are for!

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  2. Looking good! I haven't planted my broccoli yet due to this crazy weather. Last year I put them in on the 13th. It looks like everything is going to be later this year. I haven't been to the plots yet to check on my onions and peas. My peas here at the house are coming up. Germination with my shelling peas is a little spotty though. I think I'll sow a few more in the empty spots today. I spent the whole day yesterday trying to clean out my perennial beds here at the house. What a mess! I didn't realize how bad everything got last year due to me tending to my husband. I'm planning to go to the plots this afternoon and clean out and turn over the last bed.....if I have the energy!

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    1. I am worried about my early spring crops not having enough time before the heat of summer comes this year, oh well there is always fall crops. I stopped by your garden plots last weekend to see Dora and I noticed your onions you planted, I want to try transplants this year along with my onion sets because I heard they grow bigger onions. Gardening is hard work, but very therapeutic. I will have to stop by the Cedarbrook site again and maybe I will get to see you. Take care and happy gardening!

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  3. That tilled bed looks lovely! I'm putting in some new raised beds this year - making the beds was the easy part; lugging the soil to fill them up - not so easy. I can completely sympathize with your Jello Arm syndrome!

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    1. Thanks Margaret! I still have 4 more to do. I would like to eventually put a wooden frame around each bed.

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