Planting

After the beds were prepared, and after I finished transplanting plants, I planted some seeds.  The only ones I planted are the vegetables that grow under the ground.  They are more hearty and can be planted prior to the last frost.  I do not start these indoors, and there are way to many to start indoors, and they do not transplant well.

I planted both of these varieties last year.  They did okay, but not great. I don't think any of the onions got up to even a golf ball size.  They were good, and great to slice up when you only need a little onion, but I am hoping this year the Stuttgarter's will get big enough to store.  I planted 100 onions total.  They are pretty small, the Red Of Florence I planted 16 in a sq ft, and the Stuttgarters I planted 9 per sq ft.

Last year I wanted to plant the Cosmic Purple carrots, and the seeds sold out before I ordered.  This year they were the first thing I added to my cart.  I was not going to miss out.  We grew the Amarillo carrots last year and they were great.  This will also be my first year growing the Muscade carrots.  Last year the kids loved picking carrots and eating them, and we got a great harvest.  We ate most of them, but froze a few bags as well.  We have used them throughout the year in dishes like chicken pot pie, and shepherds pie.  Yumm.  I planted 96 carrots.

Beets.  I love beets.  My husband insists they taste like dirt, I beg to differ.  Either way though, I am planting them.  They are great to can, and later use on salads.  Last year I planted the Chioggia Beets, they look like candy cane stripes inside.  They were pretty, but not very tasty.  Glad to have a more traditional beet this year.  I planted 36 beets.

I forgot to take a picture of the Amish Snap Pea seed packed,  They came from Seed Savers Exchange, and were gifted to me by our awesome neighbors. They got a few seed packets free from a Lehman's order, and they do not normally plant peas.  I used this trellis last year with our zucchini, and the zucchini plants were way too big for it, but I think it will work great for the snap peas.  I planted
64 pea plants, and I am sure each and every one of those pea pods will be eaten right out of the garden by the kids, and that is exactly why I planted them.

Last but not least, the Luffa Gourd.  I direct sowed (planted outside by seed) these last year but they were in the back of the property and did not get enough attention.  I started 4 plants indoors today, hoping this year will be a success. I really want some of these to make Christmas gifts.  I promise to give them more attention.

Transplanting

I have been stalking the 10 day forecast on the weather app on my phone for the past few weeks.  The minute I saw that the next 10 nights it would not get near freezing, I knew it was the right time to start moving some of the plants that have been growing inside, outside.  I have other plants that needs to be started indoors, and I am running out of room.  I have been hardening off these plants over the past week.  I have been taking them outside every day that I could.  That helps the plants get used to the weather outdoors.  Otherwise if you just stick them directly outside they could go in to shock.

I transplanted all 4 cauliflower plants plants . .

all 4 cabbage plants . . .

12 Leeks . . .

4 Rainbow Chard plans (and seeded another 4) . . .

and 9 Rhubarb plants.  This is the first year I have planted rhubarb.  From what I have read we won't get much of a crop this year, but it will come back next year.  The plants are doing great   .



When I was getting ready to transplant the leeks, I noticed in the square next to me, that the garlic is finally coming up.  Last year it was up this high in January.  I was worried the bed froze too long or something happened and our garlic was not going to grow, so I was very excited when I found this (and many others coming up).

I went outside tonight to cover some of the plants, but then I saw the overnight temp is only supposed to get to 52, so I left them.  Hoping they do well.

Preparing The Beds

Today we got the raised beds ready to be planted.  The very first thing I did was add compost to all of the raised beds, and mix it in real good.  We have 3 different compost areas.  A bin near our house (not pictured), the compost pile sectioned off with a pallet, and another black compost bin near the back of the yard.  We use all 3 of them, and add to all 3 throughout the year. 

After that, I raked all of the raised beds to level out the soil.  Here is my husband putting up new grids on all of the beds. We do the square foot gardening method.

 

Last year we put our grids up real fast.  We used twine that we tied on nails that we put in every foot.  Over the year, the rabbits ate through the twine, it broke, and started decomposing.  The nails rusted, and stuck out of the beds.  I did not like that at all, we had to be real careful around the garden beds.  And we have kids, and dogs, and I would hate for either of them to step or put their hand on a rusty nail.  So we decided to remove them.  This year we used a nylon rope that should not break down, and we used the staple gun so nothing is sticking up above the bed.  I have seen people making grids out of thin wood paneling  but that would take up some of the space in the garden and I don't want to lose any more space than I need to.

Below is what we used as our herb garden last year.  This is the next garden bed I need to get ready.  This is where all of our tomatoes will go this year. Big project.  We are waiting to get the rototiller fixed before we tackle this.