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.