GARDENING BEGINS!
This past weekend had our highest temperatures and best sun this year. What to do? Garden prep!
3 raised beds: weeds were cultivated out with a shallow pass of the small mantis tiller.
Then composted cow manure was added at 1 15kg bag per 20ft^2 and then it was all deep tilled in with the little tiller, maybe 8-10″ down.
Also on the list was to mount two Lee Valley pollen bee nests, about 3′ off the ground on an east facing wall so they get the morning sun first thing.
We hope to have some bees in real soon now to help out the rest of the pollinators. These came from a fund raiser sale by the Ontario Hort Society District 3, last fall.
Also the climbing stand for the heirloom “drawf grey sugar” peas were put up and the peas planted in one of the raised beds.
One of the larger jobs on the weekend was the moving of this 4’x8′ raised bed. Originally it was up against the fence, as we were thinking climbing plants could use the fence. In reality we could not reach across or into the far side and ended up having to climb into the bed to do any work.
So… the dirt was shoveled out, the bed moved two feet away from the fence, and the dirt put back in, along with composted cow manure and a good tilling job. In addition, to help keep the grass out, around three sides went a layer of weed cloth, a layer of brown paper, and many inches of sawdust.
Lastly, lettuce was seeded into three cold frames. It looks like arctic king, bibb, rouge’dhiver and oakleaf types were seeded into the first cold frame.
They all used to have glass, as they were used windows, but over the years the glass broke and we replaced it with vapour barrier grade plastic. Much safer and works just as well to keep the frost off.