April 23

shot from above the garden. rained some this week on tuesday/wednesday. have fencing totally up now. has been down towards 32 or at least 40 most nights for the last 2 weeks, so nothing is growing too quickly yet. wondering if putting things in early in April ends up hurting them in the long run due to too many cold nights. carrots have not come up at all - i think i used last year's seeds. i may replace that patch with my potatoes once they sprout to 1", which is what i read they should do. in the front bed, from left to right, we have beans, peas, squash, cucumber, watermelon, broccoli, radish, lettuce, and the carrots. in the back, eggplant, pepper, and many tomatoes.

sprouts

the first seedlings are up - this is a bean rocketing up through the dirt.

compost in, beds ready

added the compost a few weeks ago. got it all turned by hand now with the compost mixed in really well and all of the clay clumps broken up as much a possible (front bed is better than the back, so we'll see - i was learning as I went). after this photo last night, i got the posts in (cut to 6 feet and set 1' deep, so 5' tall) and got all of the seeds planted in the front bed. carrots, radishes, 2 types of lettuce, watermelon, cucumber, squash, peas, and bean. tonight i'll work on the back bed with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes.

also, we did end up getting the chickens. we picked them up on March 14, 2010. 2 barred rocks, 2 golden comets, and 1 welsummer. they have been great. they are 10 months to 1 year old. we are getting about 3 to 4 eggs per day. here they are roaming about the back yard: