This afternoon, I worked up an other bed on the S side of the garden. I hilled up the soil from the path on either side, resulting in a raised bed with sloped sides, top is about 20" wide. I'll sow this area to carrots. I tried the paper napkin method (Suggested by a smart SS member!) in the green house, and it worked slick as a button. Lay out paper napkins (or paper towels) on a bed that is as smooth as you can get it. Dampen it, so the seeds stick when sowed. With the white paper, it's super easy to see how thickly the seeds are being sowed. Then, lay an other napkin on top, mist it well, and put a very scant amount of soil over the top. By the time the carrots are up, the worms have completely eaten the paper! The sloped sides will be covered with cardboard and flakes of hay.
Tilled up some areas for maters, peppers, broccoli, and an extension on the rhubarb bed. Put down leaf mulch in the pathways and some hay around the spuds. Also mulched around the zinnia seedlings.
Freshened the garden duck's water and threw the old water on the rhubarb bed. The ducks are loving the newly tilled ground and also the new layers of leaves. If they are getting bugs/slugs/worms each time they pick up and eat something, they are quite successful on their removal of critters....they are eating something every other step, it seems. I haven't seen a single slug on the greens and lettuce yet this year. YAY!
Found a grub when I was tilling and put it in their water pan....duck treat!
The skunks were really tearing up our front yard looking for grubs this spring, thankfully they have moved on the fields now that they have dried out some.
Asparagus is starting to grow - I will be on asparagus patrol for the next month. Mother's Day must be the official start to the season, we had 8 different cars stop and people walk our property line looking for the wild asparagus...
Didnt do much in the garden. Cleaned out the chicken coop and side dressed the corn with the manure. My poniac red potatoes are starting to look a little less vibrant. I wonder how long we have left before the vines die back.
Spinach in the garden has sprouted. Potatoes are breaking ground. Been hauling away my rock pile (from digging holes for 2 posts.) Need to dig holes and re-set 2 more posts on S side. This is shaping up to be a very cold and wet spring. Enough to delay the garden, for sure.
Finally got the garden planted....well....still have to set out a few squash and some cukes when they get more size on them, but the rest is in the soil. Planted 3 and 1/2 doz. peppers, both sweet and hot, today. Planted those into the black landscape fabric so as to keep the soil around them warmer than the hay will.
Also planted some sweet onions today. Yeah, I know I said I was finished with those, but they had them there and I was there and I had room...well...you know how that goes. I bought a 50 ct. bunch of red Candy onions and just stuck them here and there in the garden. I'm out $5 if they don't make anything big enough to eat.
Also set out more flowers today~nasturtium, zinnia, lobelia and sunflowers. Got the yellow squash planted...some in the flower beds, but most in the garden.
Put up a little shade tent in the duck's fave corner, using metal hoops and a feed sack. Side dressed the corn seedlings with some 50/50 urine mix.
After the cukes and other squash go in and a few half runner beans get planted, the garden is officially planted, mulched, and fertilized with manure tea and chicken litter compost. YAY!!!
bought last 2 bags of seed potatoes at TSC --5# each of Yukon Gold. Hey 25 cent per bag. I have containers and hope to put the dirt, straw, compost & spuds in them Sunday -- my day off. Will see how it goes with rest of garden I'm behind, as usual. Too much work to do much at home. Then, whatever 'fire' I need to handle gets priority with time I am here.
Feed & water chores, always done. Everything else is standing in line for attention.