As the World Turns

I certainly don’t spend my mornings or afternoons watching soaps….does anybody really watch those anymore? But the days are getting warmer as the earth continues to turn into the warm days of spring for us in the northern hemisphere and with that the expanse of our garden is growing and we have plenty of places to plant vegetables yet I am still brewing up ideas of what space will expand next because it still seems as if we aren’t growing as much as we should to sustain our family for any period of time. Let me tell you though, if you were to have seen our yard 4 months as compared to today you would understand why we are so happy to have what we do have because at this time last year it was much less.

The last of the blackberry roots have been dug out although I’m sure we will have to attack a few spirited sprouts every now and again. The nasturtium seeds that the kids and all their neighbor friends sowed are now sprouting, in large, thick clumps. I considered splitting them while young and spreading them around a bit more but that is low on the priority list right now, at least until I get the rest of the veggie starts planted which is just some tomatoes, a couple hot peppers and some mystery plants. All of the leaves that we had delivered in the fall have become a good composting mulch and it all has a home in the yard now. This fall I will double our drop because I could surely use some more!

The cinderblocks that were around the original garden bed are now gone, mostly. A few remain because we don’t have any material to fill in the gap that will be left behind and cause erosion. I am so excited about this though because I always thought they were the biggest eyesore and they honestly did not serve a very good purpose in the form they were being used. It was difficult to get grassy weeds out and weeds and blackberries would even grow up inside of the little cutouts that are in cinderblocks.  Here is what the bed used to look  like (this was our only gardening space) and what we have now. Removing the cinderblocks and adding leaf mulch will increase our gardening space, soften the edges of garden making it more visually appealing and as I mentioned above, weeding will be so much more efficient with them gone. Notice the blackberries in the back of the yard in the photo on the left. That was just a few months worth of growth since they had been hacked back the previous fall so the area was a bit larger when we tackled it. It is difficult to see in the current photo what has been done in the area that was once a blackberry patch but I will get a better picture soon. For now I can tell you that we have a plum tree planted back there along with some summer veggies and perennials that I divided or being grown from seed.

The cinderblocks have been repurposed into a wall that disguises our compost/clutter area and I planted a marionberry in front of it which will likely outgrow it’s place there but it’s close to one of the raspberry patches so it seemed like a good spot. Marionberries aren’t super vigorous though so it won’t be too hard to keep cut back. Speaking of berries, I added another 8 plants for a total of 48 raspberry plants! We won’t see a very big crop this year since half of those were planted this year and we have yet to see if some of the plants make it but I am hopeful and so excited that the kids will be able to forage in the yard.

With inspiration from some friends we brought in some straw bales to give straw bale gardening a try. I let them sit out in the rain for a week and then I dug a small hole out of the straw and spread some compost on the top then planted some of my veggie starts. then I put the straw that I pulled out back around the plant. I fit 3 pepper plants into one bale and put 2 summer squash plants into one bale. The biggest reason we opted for straw bales this year is because the garden bed that we sheet mulched last fall just doesn’t seem ready; the ground is full of clay and the soil is very compact.  Often times a garden bed takes years to really be prime for gardening so we aren’t rushing it and I figure that having the composted straw bales with compost getting mulched into the bed will only help the soil composition. I am still planting some tomatoes directly into the bed because they seem to be doing well. We also have some mystery sprouts growing from the compost that was put into the bed. I think they are a summer squash that we grew last year, Ronde Nice, although I hope they are pumpkins otherwise our neighbors will be full of squash too!

Once I get these veggies in I don’t think I will be doing much more planting and I don’t have any major projects planned and I prefer to sip ice tea in the shade when it gets hot out. My goal is to keep the weeds from creeping back into the space that we have mulched and I will also be learning how to increase the soil composition of our garden area and we’ve got cold frames that need to be ready for the fall. Plus I would like to figure out a way to build the kids a cool fort on the cheap. Any ideas?? Oh, and we needed to get the clothesline put back up last week! Work, work, work!