Progress, one bed at a time

I'm making slow but steady progress on getting these beds done. It seems like all of my days off work are on rainy days, and my full days at work are on the nice sunny ones. I think it's a conspiracy to keep me out of my garden. Today I finished the third bed, this one's for carrots, beets, lettuce, and anything else I can stick in there.

Here are some pictures of that bed in progress!

I started by outlining the bed with a string, delineating it with a pitchfork, and then removing the string.

I dug the first trench. I use the board to sit on while I work, so that my weight is evenly distributed and won't compact the soil as much.

I loosened the subsoil here, but haven't removed the rocks yet.

Here's me, holding up one of the hundreds of rocks that I dig out. The bandanna is for keeping my hair out of my face. Otherwise I would be constantly pushing it back behind my ears with my dirty hands.

Pitchforks are fun!

Bucketful of rocks.

Strawberries!!! They are growing so quickly, they've already gotten much larger since I took this pic. Unfortunately, there are lots of little weed seedlings popping up in their bed, too. Currently my plan of attack against weeds is this: get out there and pull them up. Since I spend most of my time in the garden, hopefully this won't be a big problem. Interestingly, many of the pumpkin seeds that I composted last fall are also sprouting vigorously all over the place, despite the frosty nights. I thought you couldn't plant squash until after the last frost date or it would die. Too bad I have to pull them up!

I also had an idea. In the past, we would often have tomato "volunteers" sprout up in random places from rotten tomatoes that were left on the ground over winter. These plants were usually the healthiest of the bunch. So next year, instead of planting new tomatoes, why not just leave a few rotten tomatoes in strategic places over winter, covered with straw? That way it would seed itself, and I wouldn't have to go through the work of fermenting and saving tomato seeds, or buying new seeds. Just let nature do the work. Definitely something to try.

Pics of the garden in progress

I finally figured out how to get these pics off the camera's internal memory and onto my computer. They're about a week old now, and it's amazing how much the yard and garden has already changed since I took them.

My tools all lined up for a photo shoot. The hand truck is used to transport the orange bucket when it's full of rocks. I have a square tipped shovel, a sturdy pitchfork, a small metal rake, and some assorted hand tools. The wheelbarrow is mostly good for transporting hay and compost, this one's not great for heavy loads (I popped the tire when I tried filling it with soil... oops!). I've already worn a hole through one pair of gardening gloves. Looks like I need to pick up some sturdy new ones.

A bed in the process of being double dug.

All the tan rocks in this picture are from just one bed!!

My finished strawberry bed, planted and mulched with pine needles. I used the needles because they're acidic, and strawberries like acid. The other beds will be mulched with straw or dead leaves. You can't really see the strawberries in this picture, because they were fresh out of the package and didn't have leaves. They all have several leaves now, a week later. :)

Daffodils are up!!

Planting!

This evening I planted my leeks, onions, parsley, and chamomile seedlings! Some of them I removed completely from their peat pots, others partially. Crossing my fingers and hoping they survive! I still only have two finished 4' x 10' beds, they take sooo long to prepare, and since I've had to go to my "other" job a lot, I haven't had much time to work on them. =(

Rocks!!

Over the last few days we've had great weather, so I've begun preparing the beds by using a process known as double digging. This is where you remove the layer of topsoil from a 1' x 4' section, loosen the subsoil, and then fill the trench with topsoil from the next section. Rinse and repeat. This is very slow, labor intensive work, mostly because like all New England soil, the ground here is chock full of rocks. I also have to break up clods of sod. So far I've finished my strawberry bed and planted it with the Northeaster strawberries I got from Burpee. Hopefully they'll have great fruits next year. Pictures coming soon.