Plot Preparation 2013

We finally found some time to prep our plots for this planting season.  Here is what they looked like when we arrived this morning:

And here is what they looked like just over a few hours later:

It was a perfect day to be out in the garden; sunny but not too hot. We were able to pull up most of the weeds and lay down mulch pathways.  We brought a couple of the hens in our plots to keep us company - they love picking out all the bugs and worms when we turn over the soil.

It was a lot of work and I'm glad we got the hard part out of the way.  With two plots and a greenhouse table this year, we are hoping to get a lot of yield this year!  (I will keep my fingers crossed that most of what we plant grows!)

Other than getting the weeds out and laying down some mulch, I just added some rock dust to the soil.  Once I get the seeds in, I'll water them with a kelp mixture.

The organic garlic I planted in the fall seems to be doing well: 

Next up, planting these seeds!:

This year, we'll be planting mostly the same things we did last year.  We'll do less kale (who knew one kale plant could produce for so many months?) and more squash.  We are also going to try our hand at growing peppers and quinoa.  I'm a bit late for starting tomatoes but I'm thinking about starting them in the greenhouse this week and seeing what happens.  We will also be adding carrots and brussels sprouts to our plots this year.  I can't wait!

"Indian Summer"

The nice weather has kept the garden going strong!  Despite not having as much time to weed, the tomatoes, beans, broccoli, kale, dill, and a variety of squash are in full force!

Overflowing!

Since the sun has come out, the garden has been thriving!

I've been picking kale for what feels like months now and the same plants keep producing.  Last night I picked a huge bucket.

I also picked some sweet peas to bring home - my whole plot smells like sweet peas - they are growing and blooming like crazy!

By the time I got to the garden last night, the sun was on its way down and I didn't have much light to work with.  So, this morning when I went to let the chickens out, I was happily surprised to see tomatoes growing (from the plants I started from seed!).  Let's hope they ripen.

The chickens seemed eager to get out of their run so I let them free-range and decided to clean up my garden a bit.  The nasturtiums were taking over and preventing some of the other seeds I planted from growing so I took out some of the bigger bushes.  All of my spinach had bolted so I cleared that out too and let the chickens snack on it.

So now the garden doesn't look as lush, but I hope that the cucumber seedlings have more room to grow and spread out!  

The Gardens...

I couldn't resist taking some pictures of all of the beautiful plots at the Maples Discovery Gardens tonight!  It's such a great place to unwind after a day of office work.

In the Circle Garden

Apple trees

Nasturtiums

Sweet peas

Our friends, the chickens.

Leaf of Kale from my garden.

Peas

Lemon balm growing wild along the driveway.

Lettuce in the greenhouse.

Basil in a greenhouse bed.

Second Plot!

After some discussion, we decided that we could use a little more room in the garden.  Luck had it that the plot right next to ours was going to be available July 1st so we jumped on the opportunity!  Because our summer is a bit late, we should be able to get some seeds in the ground still.


On the weekend we installed the rabbit-deterrent fencing.  We only had to do the two ends as the fence shared with our first plot is rabbit-'proof' as is the fence we share with our other neighbour.


I won't bring in any soil this year as the group that had the plot before us put enough down that we will be able to make use of it.  There weren't too many weeds in the plot either (thank goodness because I was not prepared to weed like I did for the first plot!).


The chickens were out free ranging and we managed to scoop up a couple to help us till the plot.  The rooster was not impressed at all - good thing he could not get over our fence or we would have been in big trouble.  It is amazing how quickly he comes running when he hears one of his hens squawking!  He got over it quite quickly and went back to checking in on the other hens as they roamed around the property.  


As for the hens in our plot, they were quite happy to be there (although a door would have made it easier to shoo them in and out of our plot versus catching them and putting them over the fence; they are not the type of hens to just let you pick them up and cuddle).  They had quite a feast on worms, grubs, and other bugs.  They actually got quite comfortable with us and I'm pretty sure they would have eaten out of our hand, if we had something to feed them.

As soon as they would see one of us doing something that looked like we might be turning up the soil, they'd run to us.

We definitely need to work on our chicken-catching skills.  I should have taken some video of us trying to catch them.  We had a good laugh at ourselves.

In the Garden...

Things are growing like crazy in the garden right now!


The peas came out this weekend:

And so did the nasturtiums:

We picked a whole bucket full of spinach, lettuce, and kale:

Which turned into part of our dinner (kale chips, garden salad, radish top soup):

More space, less slugs!

Here is a picture of the slug buffet remnants:

Clearly, it was a fabulous feast!

Removing the weeds from around the raised boxes and putting some crushed egg shells on the wooden dividers around the lettuce seems to have helped.  However, I did pull a couple small, whitish slugs off my lettuce yesterday.  There are some weeds between the boxes and the fence so I think I'll have to pull those and continue to reinforce my perimeters with crushed egg shells.

Most things are growing fabulously, though!  Here is a picture from yesterday (apologies for the blurriness, it's from my phone and I didn't notice when I took it):

The top right and left are two types of kale (lacinato and rainbow), middle are nasturtiums, bottom middle is spinach, beside it is lettuce.  The nasturtiums are blocking the view of more lettuce and radishes.


This week I put in some cucumbers and dill as well as a few more broccoli seeds and another patty pan squash plant.  I'm slightly concerned because I don't see a single soy bean plant emerging from the dirt and I planted them a couple (few?) weeks ago.  I haven't lost all hope - and haven't looked to see how long it takes them to sprout either.


In other news, after some discussion with my husband, we decided that we would like more garden space and decided to take on another plot!  I'll be able to start work on it within the next week and can't wait!