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!
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