Weeding

 I finally got around to some weeding today.  I weeded the Cole Crop bed in preparation for mulching it with shredded leaves.  The Cabbages are beginning to form heads and the Romaine Lettuces at each corner are of a useful size with three or four smaller ones interspersed for later harvest.

Next I need to weed the Blackberry bed and mulch that too.  The thornless Black Raspberry plant finally arrived to join the thornless Blackberries that I planted last fall.

My Tickled Pink red grape vine is finally putting out some leaves thanks to those two days of hot weather.  The  white grape is alive and has tiny green buds on it but still no leaves.

I have begun prepping the bed for the Tomato Plants but will wait until this weekend to plant them.  I have two Perpetuo variegated Basil plants on the end, and Candy onions along the sides.  I have seeded more Candy onions for a later crop.

The first and second plantings of peas need to be weeded also.  Those are not all lettuce seedlings along the sides.

Many Peppers and Tomatoes still to plant and distribute and some experimental Marigold cuttings.

I seeded Cucumbers and Summer Squash inside and placed them under a grow light since everything is still set up in the workshop.  As soon as the cotyledons appear I will relocate them to the cold frame to grow in the sunshine.

Laster yesterday afternoon when I wend out to close down the cold frame I noticed that one of my transplanted Coleus had snapped, maybe in the wind.  I didn't notice any damage as I was planting.  I brought the "cutting" inside and put it in water to watch it root.  I can always use one more Coleus...

Putting Raised Beds To Bed

 As we are now most of the way through pulling out vegetable plants, I am also prepping the beds for winter.   About half of them had leaf mulch in them already, but some of the heavy producing beds (Sweet Corn, Beans etc) did not have mulch, or in the case of the Beans, relied instead on living mulch in the form of Marigolds or Lettuce.  

My favorite winter cover is shredded leaves, but if you just fill them up with shredded leaves, a good portion of those blow all over in the winter winds.  In the past, we had an Oak tree just to the west of the garden and the west wind would dump almost all of those leaves right inside the fence.  We took that tree down last year and last fall we had a MUCH easier time rounding up fallen leaves in the garden.  But we still use the blowers a little to clean things up so having loose leaves on top of the beds is a bit self defeatist.

So what I do is put down a layer of leaves and then seal it in as best I can with a layer of compost.  The compost pile that I dumped out of the tube in March has been turned throughout the summer to finish it and was ready to sift and use.  At this point most of the worm activity had moved from the compost pile over to the fresh scraps in the compost tube which is verified by the worm juice coming out of the bottom.  These compost tubes function more as a worm farm than a hot compost pile.

There were still a handful of worms left in the bottom of the cold compost pile.  I sifted the compost one day and then loaded it in the wheel barrow to use the next day and found that the worms had taken the hint and relocated overnight.  As you can see, they congregate in the cracks of the pavers.  I wonder if they have a worm highway under there that leads six feet over to the fresh food?

While sifting the cold compost, I found quite a bed of worms red wigglers

There were still a few worms left over mixed in with the compost but they got shoveled into the raised beds where they can feast on leaves and leftover roots all winter.  On a positive note, for the first time in about three years I encountered no Asian Jumping Worms anywhere in my landscape.  I wonder if the constant snow cover helped to kill off the eggs over the winter.  I have never seen them in the raised beds or the compost area, but I was finding them fairly often in the landscape and Dahlia beds,

Still Mulching

Yesterday we got a very nice day and made the best use of it.  We are getting about every other day sunny and warm.  Spring is in full swing.

We mulched around the London Plane trees.  We did not bother to cut a new edge around these and you cannot even tell.

We mulched around the front of the house and along the driveway.

While the tractor was out I got the old Siberian Irises dug out from around the wellhead.  These needed a reset because they had a lot of grass encroaching and moss and crap.  I had already dug out some really nice dark blue Caesar's Brother Irises and set them aside ready to go in.  First I wanted to straighten out the brick edging and I didn't quite get to it.

Not today either.

Harvesting Leaves for Mulch

 Each year I try to save a good amount of shredded leaves to use as mulch in the raised beds and containers.  Anything left over get's mixed into the compost.  The Maple Tree at the fire pit is my favorite for leaf collecting. Tuesday afternoon I used the leaf chopper to suck up four bags of leaves.  The whole area was spic and span and leaf free.  Wednesday morning I went out to find this.  

Sucked up eight bags and blew the rest into the woods....

My leaf compost tube contains 18** shredder bags full of leaves.  I don't need any more, but still, it will be hard to pass them up when they are coming down this thickly.

**Footnote: after one more session I ended up with 21 shredder bags.  19 fit into the shorter tube if triple chopped.

Leaf Mulch

 

Yesterday when I was planting the second batch of cucumber plants I was struck by just how nice the soil under the thick leaf mulch is.  Not a weed in sight, moist and still aerated.

As compared to simply adding compost on top which allowed weeds to grow, not to mention all those volunteers.  

I took a better look at them and they are beginning to distinguish themselves.  I have two cucumber plants and the rest are cantaloupes.  Last year I grew only Napoli cantaloupes so all of the seeds in the compost would be from that.  It is an F1 hybrid which will not breed true so there is no telling what I might get.

See the larger jagged leaf?  It has a rougher surface indicative of cucumber.

After planting the cucumbers, I got the old leaf chopper out and sucked up any stray leaf mulch that had escaped and collected in the corners and along the sides of beds.  I dumped this under the zucchini plant.  I feel that leaf mulch helps reduce squash vine borers because the stems do not come into direct contact with the soil.

Stretching My Compost

 I finally got all of my finished compost sifted.  It is so pretty that I would like to just leave it there to admire.  This pile is from the second half of last year, consisting of four months of kitchen scraps and garden waste.  I started the pile in the compost tube in July, dumped it in the late fall, mixed in what was left of the shredded leaves from the year before and turned it all winter.  I already sifted off a wheelbarrow load and used it to dress one of the beds that is resting this year.  I still had four beds that I felt needed some compost and this was only going to stretch to two or three beds.  

I also have a pile of shredded leaves from last year.  Since I planted my tomato plants in the ground instead of containers and am not growing potatoes in grow bags, I will not be using as many leaves to top off containers and have extra leaves to use on the beds.  Earthworms love leaves.  Sometimes I put down a layer of leaves and cover them with compost to stop them blowing around.   I used the shredded leaves alone as mulch in the cole crop bed because it is covered in netting and they will not blow out.  I also plan to put straight leaves in the cucumber bed because that will be covered for several weeks allowing the leaves to settle and be watered down so they won't blow around as much.

I would typically mix the leftover leaves back into the mulch pile.  Why not mix them in now, stretch the mulch, and make the leaves less likely to blow around?  Using a wheelbarrow, I mixed the mulch with the leaves 50/50 and spread them on the two tomato beds.  I mulched a third bed with straight compost because I planted pole beans in it today and will be direct sowing Marigolds along the sides.  Marigold seeds would be lost in the leaf mold and would not make good contact with the soil.  

My compost area is nice and tidy and I have an empty tube to start filling with scraps.

I still have about a third of the compost pile left, and plenty of leaves.  I will be able to mulch everything I need to and it will be time to dump the compost tube I have been adding to since last winter so I can begin turning it and finish off the composting process.

Below is a shot of one of my developing pears on the pear tree.  I have about six Bosc pears and a few Bartlett pears setting. The tree flowered heavily, but went through a hard freeze just as the blooms were opening up.  I don't know if the scant pollination is due to the frost damaging the pollen or if the bees were not as active in the cold weather.

The tree itself is putting out a lot of fresh new growth and looks really good.

End of Mulching and Dahlia Day

We have finished the last of the edging and mulching.

And now that we are done tracking mud and mulch in the house, we have also shampooed the carpets and mopped the floors.  In the garden I am adding as many items to the bottom of my To Do List as I am crossing off of the top.  Today I planted fifty of my dahlia tubers.  They were all awake and sprouting so it had to be done.  The weather forecast looks OK but if we have a late frost I will have to cover everything.  It is a good practice to place your support stakes at the time of planting, but instead I covered most of them with wire cloches to stop critters digging them up.  To counter the tempting smell of the fertilizer and fresh soil I sprinkled them all with Liquid Fence granules.

Most of my garden chores right now do not make much visual difference.  I bury seeds (and tubers) in the soil and move plants from small pots to larger pots.  I have nice dwarf tomatoes and hot peppers and coleus hardening off in the cold frame.

The indeterminate tomatoes are weeks behind and still under grow lights.

The groundhogs were right, this has been an early spring.  I feel like I am planting a week or two earlier than usual at this point, but I am still holding off planting any warm weather plants in the ground.

Mulching

 On Saturday we finished up the far west lawn edging and freshened up the gravel.  For future reference, we cut the edge at 23" from the walk and fence which, if I remember correctly, is an inch further out than we did last time.  It has been three or more years since we cut this edge and added gravel.  

Now that whole side yard is spruced up and ready for summer.

Today we edged and mulched the front fence line.

One hundred and fortyish feet.  We measured out 16" and went along the old edge which was easy digging.  Everything that came out went into the fill area where the 2021 tree cutting project was.

I dug out any weeds, loosened the old mulch and we added new mulch along the edge.  It was 58F and sunny with a stiff northwest breeze.  Perfect weather for mulching.  

I feel... windblown

I also got my broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages transplanted and tucked into insect mesh with a shade cloth.  The shade cloth will come off in a few days.

It's Go Time!

 Let's get this (garden) party started!  So much to do.  Planting and pruning and mulching and mowing.  We had three beautiful days and we made the most of it.  Now we are entering a cooler, rainy period and we will be resting and recuperating for the next push.

I seeded my garden peas and lettuce on Monday the 15th.  I have discussed my pea planting theories at length in the past.  This will be the second year that I have covered them with burlap.  That is more for the benefit of the lettuce than the peas.  In two weeks when the peas are up, I will remove the burlap because the lettuce won't need protection from scavenging birds anymore.

Under grow lights I have some awesome sweet potato slips, hot peppers, dwarf tomatoes and micro tomatoes.  I figured I could start those tomatoes early and not worry about them getting too big.  I seeded my indeterminate tomatoes on Monday.

The cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage is almost ready to set out.  I booted this tray out to the cold frame today to harden off.  I already have some things out in the cold frame.

Due to the lengthy tree project, we are getting a bit of a late start on our edging and mulching.  We usually start mid-March and one year we had it all done by the end of March.  

We always start on the side with the neighbors and work our way back towards the house.  That way the new, fluffy load of mulch is in the beds that we walk by every day.  This old mulch leftover from last year is fine, but is harder to work with.

We had to put plywood down so the tractor wouldn't rut the lawn, but it was dryer than usual.

It was already nice sitting in the partial shade of the trees.

We started cutting a fresh edge on the rock mulched fence line.  This only has to be done every two or three years whereas the shredded bark mulch has to be edged and refreshed at least once a year.

My tulips are beginning to bloom.

This is the time of year when I walk around and look for bare spots that need spring color.  Below there is a large blank spot where the lilac bush was.  If I have to move or divide any daffodils, they can go here.  I almost always have some daffodil bulbs looking for a new spot.

Due to the mild winter, my arborescens hydrangea that only blooms on old wood, is putting out new leaves on last year's canes.  This means it will be one of those rare years when I have a lot of hydrangea blooms.