I thought I was going to just " plant potatoes" in my community plot today, but lots of other things needed to be done. The potatoes can go in later in the week (I hope).
This is what I did:
- cleaned salt marsh hay mulch off asparagus bed and then top dressed with an inch of compost
- cleared salt hay mulch off of rhubarb and added an inch of compost
- cleared old growth from perennial flowers
- disposed of old garden materials in dumpster we have on site this month
- cleared the new potato beds and started bringing in some compost
I didn't finish bringing enough compost to plant the potato beds. With rain coming tomorrow, I'll probably wait a few days to plant...
can't wait to see your tomatos post :) i planted mine yesterday and ill write it later today
ReplyDeleteMy tomato seedlings are looking super. I should give them some blog space. Good idea! I won;t plant out til mid to late May.
ReplyDeleteHi, Kathy, what kind of growing medium beside compost do you put in your raised beds? I started two 4x4 beds this year. I have bought vermiculite / compost / coco coir to mix myself but I find them to be quite expensive especially vermiculite. I would love to find out what you will put in your raised beds as you have quite a few. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI went to a local nursery and got a load of topsoil (loam) deliverered. It takes about 1 cubic yard to fill each of my 12by4 beds halfway and 3 yards for my bigger beds. .
ReplyDeleteI then topped it off with 2 inches of compost. A mile from my house is a super farm and they make composted manure. I am having five yards delivered soon. This should top off all my beds.
I put less on the roots like carrots, parsnips and beets. Also peas and beans don't need much compost. But the corn, tomatoes, peppers and squashes like lots.
The initial filling is xpensive. Loam is $30 a cu yard. I'm paying $50 a cu yd for my local composted manure. So that's about $40 each for my 12 by 4 foot beds.
But the beds only get filled once. And a good start is important. Once the garden gets going, I make all my own compost so there no cost.
At my community garden, I just piled the soil up out of my paths and into the beds. Then I dug compost from the piles at the edge of the gardens where gardeners have thrown their garden waste forever. A bit of work, but free stuff. And no plastic bags.
Hi Cathy, You may want to consider installing cattle panels in some of your raised beds. They are incredibly useful for anything that climbs (cukes, beans, tomatoes, gourds, melons, peas) are galvanized, don't rust. If you have cattle panels but want to grow low crops in that bed, no problem, the panels take very little space.
ReplyDeletePeople use cattle panels to make arches. I've seen them used to make a long tunnel with fruits and vegetables hanging down (each panel is 5' x 16') like this:
Early summer: https://plus.google.com/photos/117906041052189840258?banner=pwa&pid=5751418998185789490&oid=117906041052189840258
Late summer, looking down the tunnel:
https://plus.google.com/photos/117906041052189840258?banner=pwa&pid=5760572379474037266&oid=117906041052189840258
(These photos were taken in 2012 - in a phenomenal garden in OK during a severe drought)
If you google cattle panels and vegetable garden, you'll see how people use them.
Pam
Chesapeake Bay VA