Soil phase completed! Tomatoes planted!

 Warmer today because the cloud cover broke earlier. It was mostly sunny and warm by  11 which is when I got out to do my planting. But first, flowers.

I was able to go to HD last yesterday and get two bags of soil I needed. When we were bringing them to the garden I was able to get a better picture of the Angel Face rose.

It's not as pink as the picture, a little more lavender color but still gorgeous. Not exactly pruned correctly but look at that, four flowers with another two buds coming! Sigh.

 

I didn't notice this epi flowering in the bench garden until today. It's another huge flower and one of my favorite colorings. The Tiffany rose has four or five buds on it, that's the biggest one to bloom next.

And now.... to the garden!

I used some precious dollars to get soil but at a bargain. I don't normally buy broken bags but since I worked at HD I am taking advantage of the 'broken bag' policy. It varies store to store but if you get a cashier that's not worn down and the bag is ripped sufficiently you can get 50% off.  I was standing in front of the pallet that had the soil and looked at the other soils but really, for the money this was the best thing. I put one on my cart and then considered getting a second one. I knew that if I didn't get a second one, I would need it. These are 2 cf bags and the same stuff I used in the raised bed so I know it's good stuff.

I then noticed a bag standing between two pallets of soil that had huge rips in the side. I know exactly how that sort of thing happens and knew why it was put there. I hauled it out and put it on my cart, then considered putting the unbroken one back. I went to the register still wondering if I wanted to put it back and thought, 'screw it, I need both of them'. I asked the cashier if I could get half off the broken one and she said sure. So regular price is 9.97 and got the broken one for about 5.  Score! $16 and change for two bags that would cost $21.

So here we go. Full light of day and plants are ready. I didn't water yesterday or before I added the soil. I didn't remember the fertilizer once again until everything was planted. I did use the cultivator and loosened the soil in the bottom of the bed.

The plastic edging is not level all the way around so it looks deeper at the far end but in fact, the soil is level. There wasn't much really missing from the broken bag so that's one full 2 cf bag of soil in and it's almost to the top. Without compacting it much, of course so that would happen after I added more from the second bag.

Oh, I measured the soil depth and I got my trowel all the way down to handle depth so that's at least as deep as the raw soil was for my tomato two years ago. The soil spillage at the front shows that I already broke open the second bag and added about half that in.

Gave the soil a 'focaccia' treatment for compacting. If you've seen the videos on how they make it dimpled, I just spread my fingers and pushed down all over the bed. I could have used even more soil actually and, even though the tomatoes are planted, I can still add more because they don't mind.

 

Before and after planting and before fertilizer. I can't see well when I'm bent over and eyes watering and all that being half blind so I didn't see the difference in the soil. You can see how the soil was already drying out just in a matter of minutes after putting it in. 

Bag of fertilizer to show that I actually did put some in. Just scraped a moat around the plants and sprinkled it in best I could (more like dumped accidentally but scooped some and distributed it. Running low on the fertilizer too, going to run out with the next feeding.

And then the south bed. Had to be more careful here due to the onions being there, otherwise it would have gotten a lot more digging and amending. Not quite centered but that's okay. Will see what the difference between amended soil like this is compared to the mostly raised bed in the other bed.

I already know how well the plants do in straight potting soil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remaining soil and the cups ready for the pepper plants next. Will be potting those up tomorrow on the patio and put them out on the window box where the tomatoes were. I'm going to offer some of that leftover soil to Layla when she gets back, maybe even put the window box over there as well for her to use until she can manage to work her garden. 

Well, now it's time for a shower and then head off to get grandkids. Gardening is done for now, will check back this evening and maybe do the pepper potting then.

Yay! Garden is looking good! Hope that chicken wire keeps the snails away too...maybe?

Another t-shirt day and some soil

 Weather is still trending very warm. I have the tomato seedlings in the kitchen window and have to pull them out in the afternoon or they get cooked. Got out to Lowe's to see if they had any of that soil left that was on sale and of course they were out since Saturday. I got a larger bag for about the same price, organic and may go back and get more next week. HD has the chicken wire cheaper for what I want to get so that's for next week as well. 

I rarely shopped at Lowes due to it being a bit further away but that bag was twice the size of the ones on sale and (at regular price) only $2 more. And it's organic and just fine for putting in the ground. It's pick and choose where to go with garden supplies really. Chicken wire is $2 more at Lowes than HD, different brand of in ground soil for a decent price. Will be looking at their ads more regularly for sure.

When on a budget you go where the price is good. The tomatoes are just about tall enough to plant out at this point. Any bigger they're going to be 'root pruning' themselves and getting stunted. 

The peas all have flowers now, two or three for each plant. Yay! Now that I have this bed set up I can plan on planting earlier in the season next year. I don't know how much sooner I can plant considering  I got the soil for it in January and filled it immediately. I had no plans for it at that time so it sort of caught me flat footed.

Just some reference photos for future use. If I were to do this the 'square foot garden' method there would be a lot more in there. I'm hoping that by the time the peas are done, the beans will be up and Somewhere hopefully, the carrots will come up. If not, gonna have to wait until next year for those. They barely grew the first year I did them and at this point, the seeds may not be as viable as last year.

Onions and garlic need to stay there so once the lettuce is up I'll thin the cilantro some more to a more parallel row so there's more open space for the tomato(es). Beans will take over for the peas and peppers will go in somewhere in the north bed. (who knew peppers would take so long to germinate?)

I will probably be getting another bag or two of soil to work into the south (lettuce) bed and figure out what to plant there. So far (knock on wood/cross fingers) the gophers are staying out of that one even if the back side is open to the fence. It has less sun than the other beds even in middle of summer, so need to do some research and find out what does well in part shade. 

Just a forlorn little bed area, maybe I should try some kale later on? What about flowers? I tried to grow a cucumber there last year that didn't do well at all. It grew, it flowered, never got a single cuke on it and then the gopher got it.

So that's August of last year in the afternoon, cucumber and sunflower from the looks of it. Both were eaten despite the chicken wire. So I may have to put in another trench along the back. OR figure on using pots or a raised planter of some sort there. OR just not use it at all.

I have enough room for what I want to do as long as I can get netting in that north bed sufficiently. Even if I only dig down six or ten inches and then amend so it piles up a bit higher I should be fine. Ideas are rumbling around in my head about how to fix that bed right now.

Work on the immediate plans and let the future be determined by the present.

And more rain starting early

 Rain on and off all day today. Woke around 6 am to pounding rain outside and it's been cloudy and sporadic all morning. Cleared enough just now so I ran down to check on things  but first, some comparisons of how far my garden has come in a year.

A year ago almost to the day I had two potatoes growing in the 'fence bed' that by June was devastated by gophers. They took the huge marigold first by then though I had pulled the potatoes and was considering growing something else.

This year, a well protected, elevated and healthy soil bed. These pictures were just after filling it on January 28. You can see where the soil level is at the first 'rib' of the walls. I didn't pack it down very much, always conscientious of compacted soil but that is from dealing with hard ground dirt. I didn't want to get too high on the walls for fear of it running off in the rain I knew was coming.

 

This was the other day. It has sunk at least 3 inches which I did not count on but too late now. If I had straw I would be putting that on the surface to help the soil stay moist. All said and done, should have taken the extra bag of soil.

I joined a Raised Bed Gardening group on FB to see what things people were growing and techniques and stuff. some people call having a single height frame on the ground just amending the soil a raised bed. Well if it's ground level, it's not technically 'raised' if I could add a 12" frame around my in ground beds and add soil, I would do it. Adding in more poultry wire of course on the bottom, because gophers.

I realized that with no job and having the opportunity to grow things, gardening is going to be my focus. I do other things on the computer but with summer coming up I want to do more things outside for sure. 

The north bed has been through a lot as well.

A year ago I had a tomato I had let grow over, radishes along the front and I  think those are sunflowers that I had to build a shade structure over due to the incredible sun. This year, rain, clouds and low temperatures befitting of Spring and not Summer.

No sunflower seeds left but that's okay, got radishes and carrots in the raised bed that I think will do much better than last year. Crossing fingers.

Now, as for today and what it looks like. Snails are still doing a number on the potatoes so I tossed out some orange peels from the compost bucket to hopefully lure them away.

Patches of blue sky before the next wave of rain comes through. Windy and cold of course and the ground is saturated. Which is a good thing and very welcome compared to a year ago that had scorching sun this time of year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They're growing great but being absolutely eaten up by the snails. Best I could do is orange peels from compost and some badly eaten leaves as bait. Might boil some eggs later and crush up the shells to sprinkle around.

The hard rain early this morning certainly splattered mud everywhere. No rain predicted but cloudy and eventually warming up to the low 70's in another week and a half. This is good, perfect spring weather, nice slow warming trend rather than the light switch to 80's.

This is why you keep a garden journal. If you think it wasn't like this last year, go back through your posts/ notes and check. The electronic age is a boon to record keeping especially for gardeners.

 

Yay for mostly clear days!

 More beautiful days ahead. It was calm in the morning with cloud cover. It never cooled down very far for some reason so still jacket weather but now it's breezy. White puffy clouds with a beautiful blue sky, literally 'sky blue'. 

Nothing new happening but sweetie Jon suggested I just bend the wire mesh rather than trying to cut it. We don't have the proper tools to cut it as it is 'micro' rebar. Per the description 'grade 40 steel wire'. Yeah..my angle cutters aren't going to do squat on that. So if we are going to bend it, have to do it tomorrow at the latest or the peas will latch on any later than that.

OCD strikes again. Those two end peas on the end were too close and the end one wasn't close enough to the upright wire for my liking. So I moved it. Hope I didn't ruin the roots too badly. I actually had to dig a little and remove soil so I didn't bend the roots too badly, hence the trail of darker soil.

 

I saw a video on different 'gardening hacks for indoors', stupid really but this one made a bit of sense. Trim off the ends of your garlic leaves to make the bulb grow bigger. I didn't understand at first but gave it a try, then the light bulb went on. Pruning for size! You trim off the leaves to put  more energy into the roots and tissue/fruit production! Doh! Which is what you also do with tomatoes and peppers!

Difference from today and Feb 28, not quite two weeks is a bigger difference than it seems.

 

Just some reference photos for the future. The lighter colored soil is just where I haven't disturbed it. The onions are coming along so as soon as they get a tad bigger I'll grab an old fork (which I didn't think to use for making rows...doh!) and cultivate around them. Might just got to thrift store and look for something because I actually use my serving fork.

Good thing those aren't very expensive at thrift stores. Will have to see what else I can find when I'm there.