March Updates

It seems I have garden projects scattered all over the place right now! I have a few seedlings under lights in the basement. I'm pre-sprouting the seeds in the egg cartons on the cable box then moving them to the lights as they come up. Here are a few of the baby tomatoes I have down there. I have tomatoes, a couple peppers, herbs and a few ornamentals for companion planting. I found a pretty helpful website on companion planting not too long ago. Some of them I knew but many were new to me. Check it out at http://www.homeandgardensite.com/companion_planting.htm . I actually have seeds for a number of plants on the list so I'm going to work them in around the garden this summer.

Here's a look in the garden today. The peas I pre-sprouted and moved out are doing pretty well. They're about 3-6" tall now. Of the sprouted seeds I moved out, most of the seeds I started on the paper towels didn't make it. I might try this method one more time but only if the upper layers of the bed are more like soil than mulch. I think they just dried out. The seeds I started in the organic starting mix are doing better. When I started putting these out, I planted them into a layer of more finished compost I added to the mulch layer so they'd have a little more to grow in.

Here's a rather messy view of the garden area today. The bed in the foreground with the plastic is where I'm starting the cool season plants. It's covered because it is still very early in the season here. Out last frost date isn't until about May 15. More than anything, I'm playing with these seeds and learning a few lessons along the way. Eventually I'll find the right combination of methods or the proper planting time will come along. Either way, eventually, something will grow...

Along the fence are the 3 new beds. These are filled with the horse manure compost from the straw bale bin, the contents of the temporary beds, the last of the pile of aspen leaves that wouldn't shred last fall, coffee grounds, a bit of compost and a handful of worms. I topped these off with pads of straw (that I soaked in water first). I'm thinking the straw pads will help keep the beds from drying. I'm really wanting these to break down and settle so I can top them off before planting. The straw does seem to be working. I also have them covered with some old landscape fabric to also keep them from drying out and to keep the straw from blowing away. I saw on the news last week that so far this YEAR we have had about 1/4 inch of moisture. Yep, it's dry! I also added a little more to 3 other beds (I stole some material from the raspberry area - where the path will be) and topped them off with straw as well.

In between the beds (adding nicely to the look of the garden I must say...) are the bags of shredded leaves I'm saving to use as mulch. Next year I need a nicer looking storage (or hiding) spot for those. I had them tucked away a little nicer until I moved the lilacs out and the new beds in.

In the left corner are the stacks of large (I think 35 gal maybe?) nursery pots I'm going to use for potatoes. In front of the bins is the kiddie pool that I used to park the strawberry plants I was given in October. Their bed wasn't built yet, so I thought they'd be ok in the pool. I stabbed some drainage holes in the pool and filled it with some of the (fairly fresh at the time) horse manure and hay mixture I had cooking in the raspberry bed. The plants looked ok in the fall. I let them grow until freezing weather came and I mulched them with straw and circled the pool (which was in the corner by the fence) with the bags of leaves as insulation. I didn't want it to thaw too early. I pulled out the pool this last week and uncovered the little guys. I should have done it sooner. The survival rate does not look good. Most of the crowns were rotting and very few show signs of life. I think they have recently rotted because the roots are black but still attached. If they had rotted in the fall, I doubt I'd see the roots. I pulled out all that I could find and moved them to small trays filled with the starting soil and put them on the front porch until I can see how many survived. I didn't dump the pool in case I missed some that might be alive. It's really quite a bummer. Now I think I'll need to order some. This is a little bit of the life left in that whole pool full of strawberries. (sigh...)

But spring is coming, the hyacinths are appearing... Daffodils and tulips are coming up as well.

And I had a moment of excitement this weekend. I was giving my wintersowing containers a drink and I noticed I have a few sprouts!! Not many yet, but I was happy to see that it just might work! I found a couple sprouts of Rocky Mountain Penstemon, Dianthus knappii, and Liatris. Here are the Liatris sprouts...

I actually sowed 22 more containers this weekend. I'm trying lettuce & spinach that way too.

These are the lilac bushes we moved (remember those fun-to-dig holes a while back?). I have one more to move but the straw bale poo pile is still in the way. I had it all planned out, but when we moved the bigger bush a piece split off so we planted it where the other one (from the front yard) is supposed to go. I really wouldn't mind the lilac in the front yard but it's planted in a spot where I don't think it will work well when it grows big. It's at the corner of the front walk. When it grows, it will encroach on the walk and block the view of the front door. I think they're going to survive the transplanting. We were concerned about the larger one but it has the biggest buds of them all. We dug up a saucer-shaped area around the plants to break up and aerate the soil for the roots. We put a layer of the composted manure around the plants, then mulched that with a layer of hay topped with some wood mulch. They actually stayed moist for two weeks this way. They may have gone longer but we watered them for good measure. I want them to have enough moisture to re-grow the roots they lost in the move.

And finally, some things don't really change... This seems to be how a game of fetch always ends... if only Wilson would play fetch... he prefers to play keep-away with the occasional game of "chicken" mixed in. I actually got smacked in the kneecap with his hard head the other day. Ouch. :-)

Playin' in the dirt

The weather was beautiful today (high 60's) so I thought I'd get outside and see what I could get done. First, I turned the horse manure compost pile. The pile was smelling a bit like stagnant water when I dug into it yesterday so I figured it was time for some air. I skipped the plastic on the bottom this time as the plastic was a pain when I was turning the pile and the worst odor in the pile was the wet hay at the bottom, on top of the plastic. I think it's probably done enough to use when I am ready for it . There's still a fair amount of the paper bedding visible, but I think it's no different than the paper in a lasagna bed, so I'm not going to worry about it. I do kind of wish I had gotten the compost thermometer when I started the pile so I knew for sure what temperature it reached, but too late for that now. Oh well.

Next I started digging the holes for transplanting the lilacs that we'll be moving soon. There are 3 lilacs along the fence by the vegetable garden that I'm moving so I can add 3 more beds. This is how far I got...

I will admit, I was a bit tired from turning that pile but geez this ground is hard. The one farthest back got a good start but check out the one in the middle! It's about 2-3 inches deep! I just didn't have the strength to attack it with the San Angelo bar today. I'll try again tomorrow.

Here's a close-up of the nearest hole in the picture. The whitish colored area is where the shovel scraped against that layer that is about as hard as concrete. I dumped a couple gallons of water in each hole and called it good for the day. I'll see if the water softens it enough to dig out, otherwise I'll have to break out the bar. I suppose I'm due for a good upper arm workout anyway...

Yesterday's project ended with a bit more success than today's. I prepped a couple of additional spots for spring planting. One of these rings is for rhubarb and the other for zucchini. I'm going to make probably 2 more of these later.


I started with 10' pieces of metal landscape edging (I picked up a stack of it free a while back). My husband riveted them into circles for me. Since I put them on a slightly sloped area, I did have to dig around the edges a bit to level them somewhat though I didn't get terribly particular about it. Thankfully, this area was not near as hard as the spot I was digging today. I put the plastic trim on the top edge and hauled over some rocks to dress it up a bit. The rocks are from a large pile we picked up free last summer (Craigslist again). They look a bit like fire rings don't they??


This is what they're being filled with. Newspaper, spoiled hay, coffee grounds, some of the manure compost from the big pile and about 1/2 bucket of mostly finished compost from my regular bin (not pictured).

(Granny, that's my dumping garden cart that gets LOTS of use! It's how I move nearly everything out here!)

Campfire anyone?? Ok, this is the first layer, newspaper. The wind wasn't blowing a thousand miles per hour at that point, so I didn't have to wet it down first.

Next a couple inches of manure compost, then a layer of hay, which I attempted to wet down in the tote but I didn't let it sit long enough to absorb much apparently. Next a silver bag of coffee, a little compost, the other half cart of manure, the rest of the hay, and a plastic bag of coffee. I poked at it a bit with the cultivator so the coffee fell down into the hay so the coffee layer wasn't quite so thick, dumped the rest of the "hay" water on top and finished it off with a tote full of leaves.

After I filled the second one, I laid a piece of old fencing over the top weighted down with a piece of lumber so all the leaves don't blow away. Now we just have to wait for planting time!

The Expansion!

Last year's garden was an experiment for me. It was the first at this house, my first in Colorado (at 7000'), my first raised bed garden, as well as the first time I have used so much organic material for planting. Although there were some flaws in my planning, I feel it was probably the most successful garden I have had. I also enjoyed it very much, sooo... I expanded it! Here are a few photos of the new areas. I labeled some of the photos, if you click them, they should enlarge.

In my original plan, everything was screened from the street by the retaining wall. With the new beds, that wasn't possible anymore, so we added a little fence to keep it looking neat from the street. I purchased the fence and the posts used. I think I spent about $50 or so including primer and paint ($15 for fence, $12 for posts). I admit, cleaning up the old fence took longer than I would have liked, but I would have spent $50 for the fence alone if I had purchased new materials.

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This is the view from on top of the retaining wall. Just past the compost bin are the two beds I built last year. There will also be two 4'x4' and a third 4'x5' bed against the fence. There are 3 small lilac bushes there now that I plan to move this spring. The 4x4's are already built, they are just temporarily on the side of the fence (in the "alley" as I call it). There is also a 2.5' x 11' bed that sits low to the ground by the neighbor's fence.

The new beds expand the garden from 80 square feet to almost 200 square feet. I am also planning a second potato bin and I am planting the zucchini outside of the regular beds this year. We're using some metal landscape edging formed into a circle in a few spots around the area for the zucchini. I decided to give them their own space and use the bed space for other plants.

I topped off the original beds with a layer of horse manure, leaves, pine needles and coffee grounds (UCG) as last summer it shrank down by about 6 inches. Part of the west bed is covered with a piece of landscape fabric, as is one of the 4'x5's, (mostly because I had the fabric). I have noticed that in the original bed, under the fabric, there are worms just a couple inches down in the leaves, even in January. The 4'x5' beds are filled with weeds from the backyard, manure, leaves, pine needles, spoiled hay, straw, UCG, and pumpkins. There are also some pumpkins buried in the east bed. The 2.5'x11' is filled with weeds from the backyard, rabbit manure, hay & cage cleanings, and some leaves. Where I used the weeds, I wet them and put them under clear plastic (some in the beds, some in bags) and let them sit in the sun to hopefully kill the weed seeds. I used the weeds at the bottom of the beds. Since I'm not tilling these beds, the seeds shouldn't see the surface to sprout. We'll see how that plan goes...

Here's another view of the garden area.

I am also planning to add a raspberry patch. We had so many raspberries at our house in Alaska, I miss having them. Really, I would like to have raspberries (yellow & red), blackberries and black raspberries, but I'm just starting with the red & yellows. They are actually the only types recommended for this area (according to the CSU website), but I think I'll see if I can get the others to grow here as well. I'm also going to put in a couple of rhubarb plants.

So, that's the end of the expanded tour.
(I do hope I didn't get carried away! )