Well, I obviously was too busy to post at the end of the 2009 season. Now it’s 2010 and we’re getting ready for the next planting season. We will be expanding the garden to include the west side, the slope along the east side, and some fruit trees outside, to the west.
Yesterday I started my first batch of seedlings in the soil blocks: kale, spinach, arugula, romaine lettuce, mesclun varieties, onions & scallions, and four varieties of peppers. Tim will be putting up a cold frame, so the lettuce, kale, etc. that I started now will go into that as early as possible.
I’ll be starting tomatoes and a few other things in the next couple of weeks. I’m much smarter this year as far as quantities, and being careful not to plant too many. I will be adding a few new things for the new beds, such as tomatillos, ground cherries, melons, and maybe potatoes. Tim is doing research and ordering some fruits & berries! We plan to put the berries by the fence so they can climb.
Before the winter began, Tim sheet mulched the west area in preparation. I sprinkled manure on all the beds previously used, covered them with hay and bedded them down for winter. Unfortunately, a lot of the hay has blown off, and I haven’t kept up with replacing it.
In the fall I planted some garlic and onion sets, and mulched them well. There are a few beginning to shoot through the mulch, and I’m sure they’ll begin growing soon. The 2009 garlic never really got big enough, so I left them in the ground and I’ll see if they continue to grow this spring. I’ll be planting more garlic & onions as well, for fall harvest.
I don’t know how well I’ll keep up the blog…I’ll just have to see how it goes.