Out there, things can happen

Big things have happened over the last 3 days.  Friday was our first delivery of compost - 3 cubic yards, just over 2 tons.

Two days later and the compost is still steaming hot when we take it out from under the tarp.

Saturday brought another 4 cubic yards of leafgro compost and we started digging out the garden beds.  Actually double digging the garden beds.  Because we plan to use intensive planting to make the best use of a small space, we're giving our plants a good 24'' of loosened, fertile soil to grow in. Their roots can grow down instead of out and so they can be planted closer together.  As the plants mature the leaves act as a living mulch, reducing the need for water and keeping weeds at bay.

Sunday we dug from 9am-7pm with a bacon cheeseburger break somewhere around noon and finished one and a half out of the four beds.

 The idea is that you dig off the top 12 inches of soil,

then use a garden fork to loosen the next 12 inches, and then return the original topsoil to the trench you just dug.

I've gathered most of this info so far from one book on organic gardening and lots of research on the internet.  I've just given in and spent the $16 on a guide to bio-intensive farming that should save some research time.

Hopefully this will be the last time we have to do this for these beds, using deep rooting cover crops in the fall to help with the work, as well as all of the worms that we're hoping will take up residence in the newly amended beds.  

It's all very exciting, finally moving from the planning phase to the digging phase.  The cabbage, leeks and lettuce are all spending a few hours outside everyday so they'll be ready to plant out in a couple of weeks!

What's growing now...

• Early Flat Dutch Cabbage
• American Flag Leeks
• Pickling Cucumbers
• Bush Cucumbers
• Brandywine Italian Paste Tomatoes
• Super Choice Tomatoes
• Dr. Carolyn Tomatoes
• Hungarian Italian Paste Tomatoes
• Brandywine OTV Tomatoes
• Early Snowball Cauliflower
• Waltham 29 Broccoli 
• Thyme
• Calendula
• Lemon Balm 
• Chives
• Sage
• Marigolds
• Zinnias

Starting seeds

We've had a few different versions of our own seed starting operation over the past few weeks.  The first seeds, cabbage, leeks, thyme, lemon balm and sage were sown into 3'' pots on February 18th.  Next came the lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, oregano, calendula, watermelon and cucumbers.  All in two giant lasagna pans.  That was not a good idea, since all of the seeds have different germination times and like different temperatures.  When it comes to watermelon and cukes, they shouldn't really have been started for another few weeks, but, hey, there's a pretty steep learning curve here. I'm dealing with it.   

There's been a lot of tweaking, here's the latest version:

It worked well for the past week and a half but now the plants are growing too tall and starting to touch the lights.  I don't think that's a good thing, so tomorrow I'll reconfigure them.  I found the shop lights in our basement, we had the shelves and I got a carload of the pots and trays from freecycle. The baking pans under the pots were about $1 each at Target.  There is a lot of shuffling that happens since there are more plants than lights and I keep dreaming about having a slightly more sophisticated set-up next year, but it was mostly free and took a lot of measuring and staring, so I'm pretty proud of it.   

We have a lot of digging to do...

This is our backyard.