#1 Veggie Garden Bed

I love this part. The sun has warmed up the beds and I can finally plant the tomatoes and peppers. When you have a raised bed like this one, the soil is so loose and lovely that it’s like crumbly chocolate cake. Dee-licious feeling! I wear rubber gloves and use a trowel but really I would rather go barehanded and just scoop the dirt with my fingers.

The edge of the bed is kinda narrow so I have that little white step stool to sit on, as well as a really great kneeler, which I can’t use ‘cause of my knee. Nevermind, everything is so easy to plant this way that I don’t need to kneel.

I am planting only three tomatoes this year, so far anyway. Two Bush Goliaths which are determinate and stays small and one heirloom, Brandywine which will have to be staked. Dave doesn’t eat tomatoes so there really is no point in overdoing them.

But wow, do I have a lot of peppers. Eek. Two Poblanos, two Gypsies which are so prolific that I will have peppers to give away, and a nine pack of green bell peppers. Two many? I think so. But who knows what critters will be attacking them, so better to have too many than not enough.

I also bought a pot of chives. I have chives from seed that I planted last year, but compared to these, not worth a mention. I cut off the peat pot they were in and divided them into four parts with a serrated knife. I like chives for their blossoms more than anything and put them in the four corners of the pepper bed.

 

Here’s bed #1 all planted. I also planted two zucchinis and a couple of yellow straight necks. Hmm, this bed is mostly stuff I eat. O well. The other veggie bed will have carrots and green beans and Dave likes those.

Here’s what’s happening in the Lasagna bed.

 

It’s more of a rescue and recuperate bed at the moment. Vole eaten hosta and ferns, a few calla lily bulbs and a sedum, all trying to come back from trauma. This bed is made from just layered wet newspapers, straw, leaves and last year’s tomato potting soil piled up against the retaining wall. It is protected from too much weather and it really does help the weak plants recover.

This is my latest big idea. Of course poor Dave has to make it happen, but even he likes how it looks so far. The two parts of the hill came together here in a crevasse that was starting to erode badly. Nothing would grow there and at the top of the hill was an ugly bush which attracts a zillion bees when Dave has to mow the grass. Out came the bush and Dave built terraces with some freshly cut logs, filling in between them with the clayey soil. We will then top off each level with beautiful black humus and plant liriope, hosta and perennial oregano which will cascade nicely over the edge of the logs. At the top level goes my ornamental grasses which are still awaiting a home.

One more row of logs to go, but Dave had to take a break to go play baseball at the local high school. He has been scouting out someone to catch his pitches for a while and got the idea to go over and talk to the baseball coach where he was welcomed with open mitts! He is back to his old self thanks to these new meds. Ain’t life grand? We are both finding fun people of like minds here.