We picked up a crap-ton of soil. I'm using a higher quality garden soil and mushroom compost (as well as some composted horse manure) to amend the topsoil that is currently filling my garden beds.
This is what the second tier of our terraced garden bed looks like. It's a little larger than 4' x 12' so I will be planting it as if I was doing four 4'x4' square foot beds. The Hubs was super sweet and built a third tier for me, so I'll be working on that later. I had (mistakenly) filled that tier with some cheap topsoil when we built it last fall and...surprise! Nothing grew. Not even weeds. I finally bought a soil testing kit in January and tested the soil - it was totally depleted of nutrients. I amended the soil in the front beds as a "test" and you can see that the peas, chard, and carrots I planted there in March are doing very well! In these big beds, I lined the bottom with newspaper, threw on some composed yard waste as a filler, and topped that with about 12" of topsoil. The top 4-6" of soil is a mix of Miracle Grow Garden Soil and amended topsoil. Miracle Grow wasn't my first pick - chemicals creep me out - but it was on sale and I'm a gal on a budget. Hopefully The Hubs will help me build a big compost bin so I can start making my own organic soil.
While I was working the sunshine came out for a bit, so my #1 garden "helper" was outside with me. Norman's help consists of sunning himself and licking my face when I pull weeds.
Emma, on the other hand, had to come and inspect the soil. The little monster had been digging in another part of the yard, and I think the newly spread soil smelled amazing.
I have never grown peas before, so I tried the "Easy Peasy" shelling pea from Burpee this year. I read that it doesn't need to be trellised...can you believe how those tendrils are growing all over each other? I'm growing "Super Sugar" snap peas as well and they seem to be thriving too, but I have absolutely no clue when they are supposed to flower and grow their fruit!
Other than peas, I am currently growing beets, radishes, onions, garlic, shallots (which are doing nothing), Swiss chard, kale, lettuce, radicchio, carrots, and strawberries. Phew, that's a lot! Next week I'll move my tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers to the garden. I have cilantro, basil, and Swiss chard growing under the grow lights and I think they need to be transplanted into larger containers next week.
Greens are so gorgeous - I had no idea that radicchio (left) looked like this. I love watching the romaine (right) grow.
I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that I can convince The Hubs to go with me to Home Depot again! I had this crazy idea to plant marigolds around the perimeter of the garden...we'll see!
- Maggie White
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