Friday, April 24, 2009

#1 Veggie Garden Bed

image

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.

image

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.

image

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.

image

 

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.

image

 

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.

image

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.

image

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.

9 comments:

  1. What fun, Mel! I'll be joining in the fun this weekend. I planted five tomato plants the other evening, and the peppers are ready to go in--too many varieties to mention, but I am still looking for a poblano. Melons and squash, too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like the looks of the new garden! We aren't even close to tomato planting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. WooHoo! That's great news! Glad Dave can re-visit his baseball talent. Get you're knee fixed in May and - zip! all is awesome (touching wood of course, don't want to tempt anything!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looking forward to seeing the garden through the season and how it all develops! May the fairies guide it well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. DH started lettuce, green beans, peas, cukes, 2 kinds of peppers and eggplant from seeds this year. They're in little peat starter things on my cutting table. We're thinking of getting our tomato plants this weekend.
    I love your raised beds; we have an 8'x12' piece cut out of our yard.
    Your terracing looks great; it should help a lot with the erosion.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Seeing your beautiful raised beds reminds me of the tomato/zuchini bed we built years ago.sigh... Your landscaping idea using the terraced wood stumps is wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  7. looks like your garden is coming right along!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I admire you good work with your garden. I hope to adopt some of your good ideas for my own garden, but I there are some small spots with snow here and there.
    Eva in Norway

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous3:44 PM

    It's all looking great. I stopped yesterday and bought a bunch of plants- now I just have to get them planted. Of course, it's still kind of early here.

    It's great that Dave is playing ball. The more physical activity he gets the better. My dad's PD was diagnosed in 1996 and he still works out 3 days a week. He found someone to work with in Honolulu (they are there for 6 weeks) and the guy was amazed at how strong my dad is for 81. SO they are concentrating on balance- he isn't as steady as he is strong!

    I will try to get some stuff posted on my blog this week....

    hugs,

    teri

    ReplyDelete

Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com