Busy in the garden

I have been busy in the garden trying to get ready for this year's bounty. The majority of April has been spent weeding, prepping, and building. 

Ryan all smiles as he see the end is near
for completing another raised bed.

We removed two small raised beds that were rotted and falling apart. In their place, we built two 5X12 foot raised beds. We certainly got our exercise digging out the turf to make room for these beds, but in the end, it was worth it. I now have four 5X12 foot raised beds for growing vegetables this year - approximately 10% more space than what I had the last two years.

For each bed, I first rototilled leaf compost (~ 3 cu feet) into the existing soil, then added peat moss (~ 1.5 cu feet), medium grade vermiculite (2 cu feet), Miracle Grow vegetable and flower garden soil (~ 16 cu feet), and greensand (~ 2 lbs). The plants should be happy!

To date, I have transplanted onion seedlings (walla walla, candy, and red zeppellin), broccoli, napa cabbage, kohlrabi, lettuce (black seeded simpson and lolla rossa), and heirloom tomatoes (big rainbow, roma, san marzano, green zebra, japanese black trifele, and indigo rose). I have also planted snap peas, bush beans, carrots, turnips, radish, and scallions seeds between the garlic and onions that I planted last fall.

I still have a lot (A LOT) of tomatoes that need to be planted. For now, I have transplanted them into larger containers and have begun the hardening off process. In about 1-2 weeks, they will be ready to plant outside and endure the elements.

My pepper plants are still growing indoors - slowly, very slowly. I probably won't plant them outside until mid to late May. I may try growing the hot peppers in large pots on the deck this year since I am running out of space in my gardens. 

What to do with the watermelon, squash, and cucumbers??  Hmmm...I may need another raised bed.  (Sshhh)  

NOTE: the "we" above indicates all the manual labor that was performed by my loving fiancé Ryan  ;)