weekend's work

got a lot accomplished this weekend. on saturd

ay, put in the 2 new sf boxes, mixed all of the ingredients with my sons' help, and got the square foot string in place and planted most of the tomatoes. this morning i finished transplanting the last few tomatoes. had to move some things around in the back rows to make room - some of the spinach and the snap peas got relocated.

for the 2 new boxes, mixed up 4 bags of compost (2 from southern states and 2 from lowes), and one bag each of vermiculite and peat moss. the 2 boxes do not look as full as the first 2 i did last fall, so i want to get some more compost from a third store to add to them. otherwise, the look great.

also did some odds and ends repair work on the fencing and fence posts. still need to plant the rest of the beds and transplant the squash and cucumber seedlings i bought last weekend at southern states.

april 21

started building 2 more sf boxes last night. still need to level out a space for them, then mix up the mel's mix. have all the materials though.

transplanted 4 tomatoes out this morning - the 3 early harvests and one mortgage lifter. set the remainder outside to harden off for a while. here's how the back bed looks now:

april 18

started to harden off the tomatoes this weekend. torrential downpours on saturday, beautiful and sunny on sunday. bought materials sunday for a new pair of 4x4 sq ft gardens. rained too much saturday to work much outside, but i did get the compost turned. potatoes are starting to peak through the soil, so i'll add another inch of soil soon. plan to build the 2 new boxes and put the tomatoes out this week.

tomatoes re-potted

got the tomatoes re-potted. ox-heart, super beefsteak, early harvest, and mortgage lifter. i'm especially excited about the oxhearts. those heirloom seeds are from my wife's aunt in Pennsylvania from 2008, but they sprouted and the plants are looking great. i re-potted from the seed-starter soil pucks that came with the sprouting kit in to the mel's mix that i had pulled from the garden last week when i planted my potato spuds. the sfg instructions for the potatoes said to plant them 5" deep but only cover with an inch of soil, then every week or so as the sprout through the soil, add another inch of soil. so the soil i took of the top i had in a bucket and used some of that to re-pot the tomatoes. hope that works. my only concerns are a) that the main nutrients in that soil are from my own compost (pressure!) and b) that mel's mix is so light and fluffy, i hope it can support the tomato plants. we'll see...

before re-potting:

after:

April 8

so the cauliflower died with the frost - i left the best looking one in to see if it could survive. i lost 2 rounds of broccoli as well - the first round the chickens ate. the second round got frost bitten. so i have my third round out there and hopefully it can survive. we had a freezing night earlier this week, but i had covered the broccoli with a plastic sheet so i thought i was in good shape, but in the morning before work when i removed the sheet, the broccoli leaves had frost on them! but a few days later and they looked pretty much fine (the back box in the picture below). everything in the other box is doing well - onions are good and also up are the beans, peas, lettuce, and spinach. very excited for that! need to repot the tomatoes today - they are about 3 or 4 inches tall and looking good!