BRING ON THE COMPOST

I am PUMPED about the state of the garden right now. So much got done today!

Russ and I picked up 2 yards of composted pine mulch in his truck this afternoon so I could start amending the clay soil (and I had a Groupon so it was an excellent deal, $25 for $55 worth of mulch! Woo hoo!)

2 yards of composted pine mulch ready for the garden!

My mom came over to help me continue the weeding and digging and now, mixing in the soil amendments. I was also planning on using some composted horse manure but I'm not sure if that is going to be necessary after all. I haven't decided yet.

My mom was a superstar in the garden tonight - we both worked for nearly 4.5 hours and the soil is looking SO much better already. We dug out another huge trench but didn't have time to fill it in with cedar chips tonight, so that will be a job for another day. We then mixed in the compost until we both had broken wrists and sore backs and it was getting dark and we had to stop. Check out the beds with the compost compared to the ones without now (at the back of the garden). There's such a difference in soil texture already, not to mention the nice rich colour. Dark soil = good soil!

5 of 8 beds with awesome new soil!

Also notice how high the beds are now? I'm not at all worried about the low land and water sitting in the plot, which has apparently been a problem for this area in the past. So far the cedar wood chips have done an awesome job of absorbing excess rainwater and I'm expecting the raised beds to dry out more quickly than if I had just left them flat at ground level.

So guess what this means? Almost time to start planting!!!!

MULCHING THE PATHS

My sister is awesome. She went to the garden with me today, helped dig out more trenches, then brought over several loads of cedar mulch from the other side of the field so we could fill them in. It's looking awesommmmme!

I love the cedar mulch, it makes the whole garden smells like a spa! This stuff is provided for free for all gardeners, which is really nice. I'd never be able to afford that much mulch on my own!

Thanks again Mel, you did a great job helping me today!

UGH PART II

The pity party of yesterday afternoon is now finished!

My sister decided to come over after she got off work to help me set up the gazebo, something I had attempted to do by myself but failed miserably at. Not to say that it went smoothly with two of us working on it, but at least we got it done.

I paid $40 for this gazebo frame from someone on Kijiji, which seemed like a pretty good deal at the time. However, upon putting it back together yesterday, we realized almost every single screw was rusty and the frame was warped, meaning the screws wouldn't fit back in the holes properly and it was a giant PITA to assemble. We actually broke one of the screws in half it was so rusty - this thing really should have been free!

Finally assembled. We will be putting wood chip mulch on top of the weed barrier to even out the base.

I'm not a fan of the big ugly white ropes holding it down, but the wind was picking up just as we were finishing and I had to quickly stake it into the ground before we left. Hopefully my plants will grow in and hide them later on.

You might be wondering why I put this big piece of rusty junk in the garden at all. The reason is three-fold:

1) I plan to attach several pieces of string along the crossbar at the rear leading back down to the ground, and will grow the Kentucky Blue pole beans up them. This will create a "wall of beans" on one side (and maybe up onto the roof, depending how big they get).

2) I am planting Heavenly Blue morning glories at each corner, which will hopefully grow up the corner columns and onto the roof as well, creating a shady living structure.

3) Once grown in, the gazebo will shade the plot in front of it for most of the day, where I will be planting my lettuce and other veggies that tend to bolt early and don't do well in the hot summer sun. I'm hoping this will extend the growing season for my salad greens.

My inspiration picture for the gazebo + morning glory set up.
I hope mine turns out as lovely!

I think we are going to head back over this morning and fill in the weed barrier area with woodchips, as long as the rain holds off. Thanks to my sister for coming over and helping out. It was nice to have some company and the extra helping hands. She will be handsomely rewarded this summer with fresh peppers and tomatoes!!!

DAY 5 DIGGING

Alllllllmost there....

The gazebo will be going on top of that square patch in the middle... I didn't miss a spot :)

MORE PROGRESS

Just a quick post to show a couple pictures of the work I did tonight. Yep, still weeding and digging. I see a light at the end of the tunnel though!

... AND MORE DIGGING

Let me start this post by saying that my. body. is. SORE.

I went to the garden for another 3.5 hours this morning, this time at 7:30 AM. There's something I really like about being out in the garden early in the morning before anyone else is around. It's so quiet and refreshing. Once 11:00 rolled around though it was hot out and I was beat. My legs are shaking just walking around the house now (at least I won't need to worry about going to the gym... 3.5 hours of manual labour is more than enough exercise for me!).

Here's today's progress, another 2 beds almost ready to go. I think this week I will start bringing in some compost so I can try to beef up the clay soil. You can tell how poor the soil is by the beds I dug out yesterday- look at that hard, dried, grey clay!

I also had some dead grass that I had raked off of the plot yesterday morning that I decided to lay down in the trenches as mulch. I'll still top it off with wood chips later but I like the way it looks for now, plus it'll stop them from becoming too muddy when it rains.

I'm super pleased with my 6.5 hours of hard work this weekend. I will give myself a well deserved pat on my very sore back!

CHOP CHOP DIG DIG

Last night I realized that my peppers plants were starting to flower. It's way too soon for that, and they're not nearly big enough to support the weight of any peppers, so I chopped their heads off!

See ya flower buds

Beanars says "can I eat these ones now?"

Yep, I decapitated all of them. As much as it pained me to chop off so much, I know they'll grow back stronger and bushier and produce more peppers this way. 

This morning I got up early and started hardening off all of the plants (which in regular-speak means taking them outside so they get used to the wind and rain and sun). If you don't gradually harden off your plants for a few weeks before planting them outside they'll go into shock, or get sunburned, and die. The elements can be pretty harsh!

The next item on the agenda was to start working on the plot - here's what I managed to accomplish from about 8:30 until 11:30 this morning:

The far bed will hold peas, carrots, bush beans, and beets. The closest will be for salad greens.

Are you impressed? I'm impressed. I pretty much got these first 2 beds weeded and built up, and also dug trenches around some parts (which I'll later fill with mulch to absorb water when it rains, and to be used as pathways between the beds). It was getting pretty hot by 11:30 and my arms were feeling weak so I called it a day. The pictures make it look like nice fluffy soil but that is pure HEAVY clay. But I did see a ton of these guys as I shoveled, which is a good sign - there must be enough nutrients in the soil for the worms to be feeding on, plus they help return nutrients to the garden with their poop!

hi there wormy, thanks for your help!

It's my mom's birthday today so now I'm off to Manotick for the celebrations. The weather is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow so we'll see how much more I can weed and dig out by the end of the weekend (If anyone wants to come help me I will reward you with delicious vegetables during the summer!!!!)

Have a good one and enjoy the weather!