. . . well nearly. We only had light sprinkles yesterday and no rain in forecast today or tomorrow in spite of the earlier prediction. Hey we live in Virginia, if you don’t like the weather, stand there for 30 minutes and it will change. After the usual Saturday morning breakfast run and trip to the Farmer’s Market, where I purchased with my already harvested greens, 8 healthy Mini Head Lettuce plants. Yesterday afternoon, we bought two more Blueberry bushes, so after we arrived home, the garden clothes were pulled out, the bushes planted at the ends of the two rows of the other 6, the lettuce starts planted in one of the new boxes. and the tools brought out to finish the heavy work that was remaining. The box away from the garlic was dug in and built, filled nicely with the soil from the two boxes it replaced and some of the compost beside it. I didn’t want to leave the box that incorporates part of the garlic bed and below it undone. The cedar boxes are not truly 4 feet, so I dug outside of it and built 3/4 of the box around it. When the garlic is harvested, the 4th side will be added and the soil from that box added to the new larger, deeper one.
This is the box I cheated on. The new 8 foot sides end about halfway up the sides of the cedar box. I may add one more board on the near end and fill that box deeper. The other one built today is on the opposite side of the 4 x 4 box and the asparagus bed that still has fence on three sides of it.
From up the hill, you can see all the new boxes and all the old cedar boards that need to be removed. Two of the old cedar beds are stacked in the left corner, that is the compost area. Peas, onions, garlic, asparagus, and lettuce starts are in. The flat of spinach, kale, and mesclun mix are growing nicely and after the early week freezing rain that is expected, they will go in the garden as well. I will protect the new head lettuce plants with a translucent plastic box for early week’s freezing rain.
We bought a roll of weed mat as cardboard is not available and tomorrow, if I can bend after today’s efforts, I will finish putting it down and getting mulch on it. All that will be left to do is plant when the time is right, keep the weeds down in the beds themselves, all relatively easy tasks compared to what has been done. As I dug earthworms, they were added to the new beds that are bagged soil on cardboard to get them started in those beds. It has been a strenuous week that has seriously cut into spinning and knitting time, but the garden looks good, has boxes I can sit on the edges of, and is ready for the seeds and plants that will fill our freezer and larder shelves with goodness to enjoy. Since all the tomato plants that have been started are determinate plants, I may just stake them this year and build the A frame trellis next year. If I ever get the energy to move more wood, I may box the asparagus bed and build a new long box around the blueberries, though I think weed mat and mulch is all that is necessary there.
The peach tree, maple trees, and other fruit trees are beginning to bud out. I hope we don’t have a fruit killing freeze.