Planted - April 21st

All from West Coast Seeds:


Cilantro
Kale - Rainbow Lacinato
Kale - Redbor
Lettuce - Buttercrunch
Lettuce - Esmeralda
Nasturtium - Salad Blend
Radish - Rudi
Shelling Peas - Paladio
Snap Peas - Sugar Ann
Spinach - Vancouver
Spinach - Corvair
Sweet Peas - Late Spencer Blend (for Els, they always remind me of her)


Checked on the garden yesterday - the radishes are coming up but no sign of anything else yet.

Fencing

After talking to some other people at the garden, I decided that it would be worth my time and effort to install a fence.  Not only is my plot right next to the parking lot - which lends itself as a shortcut for dogs and children - there is a rabbit problem in the area.  One lady said that her whole garden was eaten by rabbits last year, another lady told me that half of hers was.


So, I did some research and headed to Home Depot for supplies.


After another full day's work, I had a rabbit-deterrent fence installed.  It's dug about 6-inches into the ground.  The fence is folded under the ground so that it comes out about 4 - 6 inches from the fence line.  The idea is that if the rabbits start to dig to try to get under the fence, they will hit the chicken wire and not be able to get in (or at least be deterred).  We shall see if it works.


I had a man come up to me and tell me something along the lines of the more time spent bent over in the garden (i.e. back-breaking work) I do, the better my garden will be.  (I think he was translating a quote from Russian.)  I told him that, if that's the case, I'm going to have a really great garden this year!

Beginning of day. 

End of day.

My Garden Plan

Here is my plan for my 2012 garden using the Mother Earth News Vegetable Garden Planner:


http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=269231


The planner is really neat and has a square foot gardening option which made my planning much easier.  It will tell you when to seed, plant, and harvest for your area.  It will also help plan succession sowings and crop rotation.  Since I'm new to things like this, it will save me a lot of research!  It's only $25 per year - I've been using the free trial but am very tempted to sign up.


I did put in some time to research companion planting before I laid out my plan.  Wikipedia was really helpful for that.


In my square foot garden areas, the plan tells me how many seeds to plant in each square foot.  Of course, the math wouldn't be too difficult but it will be really convenient to be able to look at the plan and plant away.

My Neighbours

I will admit that part of the reason why I chose the plot I did was because of my neighbours; the chickens.  They are right across from me and make excellent company while I garden.

I throw my buckets of weeds over to them so that they can scratch through them.  I like to wait until they are on the other side of the coop so I can see the rooster 'sprint' when I throw the weeds over - it's hilarious.

All In a Day's Work

My husband and father-in-law helped to build three square foot gardens for the plot.  

It took me over 8 hours to weed - I now officially am not a fan of buttercups.  I couldn't believe how difficult they were to pull up.

Thankfully, I will only have to do this much weeding once.  The square foot gardens and the paths were in place by the end of the day.  The final touches will be to put bark mulch on the paths and add some organic Eco-Soil to the beds.  The Co-op is negotiating a deal on the soil for the members.

Sprouting!

Eight days later, the broccoli sprouted.