2nd week in February...spring planting has begun!

Today is February 7th and it's been warm and sunny for a couple of days. Spring fever is definitely in the air around these parts...I've been waiting impatiently for a day when I have the time to get out there and dig.

This afternoon I finished up with work (anomaly, that...), helped the kids with homework and headed out with a small rake and a handful of seed packs. It only took me 10 minutes or so to rake the residual fall leaves and pinestraw off the beds and prepare them for planting. I just let nature mulch the beds for me in the fall and left it as it fell. The dirt in my beds is rich, dark and black...a perfect mix for sprouting my new seeds! It's damp and cool in the ground now...they raised the watering restrictions for Georgia given our plethora of rain the past couple of months and you can certainly feel the damp in my garden soil.

I have a 1/3 bed of spinach, a 1/3 bed of short carrots and 1/3 bed variety of lettuces. Approximately 1' x 4' plot of green onions (chives) which will grow into summer...and the random garlic head from last year. I've also got a plot of catnip which I may remove before it gets warm and becomes invasive...haven't decided on that yet. If I remove it I'll just transplant it over by the pergola...

Yet to be done...I need to figure out about the broccoli and cauliflower. I thought those were spring-ish plants in my zone but the packs threw me off. Will read more on that and decide.

I also need to de-stump the corner bed and then clip back as much ivy as I can. I'll be using the (shh!) Round-Up on the English Ivy as I cut it back, hoping the killer will get into the vines that are cut and actually work. Ivy is so hard to kill and it's rather invasive in my yard (thank you, original owners) beautiful though it may be, once you are done with it you have a task to remove it. Round-Up is my chemical of choice since it has a relatively short life in the dirt and it's run-off is less offensive than others IMO. By the time I plant that bed with beans and peas this spring (post-frost) it will be long gone from the soil.

I'll be re-landscaping the front bed in the next month. I'm reworking my office/school room into an office/studio space and will need a more manicured front bed to accompany my plans given the client load I'm carrying ;)

2008...work begins on my spring garden!

Yes, it is only January but we've started work on the garden so it will be ready soon for spring planting. Here in north Georgia, I can plant my cool-weather spring crops in February so I needed to get started.


Yesterday I had my first seed-swap meeting with severay friends who also garden. I'll be planting a myriad of greens, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onions and garlic soonish...it's nearly the first of February so most likely by Valentine's Day I'll have direct sowed those crops. The summer crops I'll start by mid-February in-house.


I realized that given my surgery, I never had the corner of my garden area cleared where I wanted to put beans this year. Today I mentioned that to my husband (we were out trimming back the perennials anyways) so he went and found our chainsaw. You see, there were 3 LARGE shrubs over in that corner. It's a lovely corner, a naturally raised bed with a stone retainer wall in the corner of my fenced yard. I envision a bean teepee over there with a variety of green, white, yellow and purple pole beans that the kids can help me harvest (and play inside of) this summer. I will grow peas along side of it in smaller teepees and then bush beans along the edges. The 3 shrubs had to go...they were probably 12 feet tall and were definitely at least 10 years old.


He disassembled our (broken) chainsaw, reassembled it, tinkered with it until it worked...and then got to work on the shrubs. They are gone now...as you can see in the pictures :) The difference in light in that corner is clearly apparent already. I am thinking the entire garden will be full-sun now that those are gone. They overhung the garden and kept a lot of light out. Maybe I'll be able to grow melons over the edge of those stone retainers...I didn't have enough light last year.



































BEFORE: (the first image is in April when we were building the beds, second is on July 9 -my birthday - and shows the garden in full summer bloom.)

Now:
















So...it has started! The soil in my raised beds is lush...dark, fine and so very soft and fragrant. I'm pleased the lasagna method worked so well for me last year! I'll be adding some new layers to the top soon and begining my growing season in just a couple more weeks!