This week with the snow my landscaping truck sat and even after the snow was melted, the ground was way too soft to throw machines on. This opportunity was taken in great stride. My garden was subject to great neglect over the past year. Not having any time to garden last year, being full of work, all of my attention went to establishing my grape vines and asparagus. Lucky for my these two tasks were not over the top. This year I want to get it going, but, after this winter beat down on this garden, it was left looking like hell.
A mess I walked into, but once I took care of step one things did seem to take off. This was rake those leaves into piles, I'm going to use one of these piles. So after I get rid of the other piles and dig a 5'x5' wide and 2 foot deep hole.
I proceed to fill that hole with that pile of leaves and some fish remains. I back filled the hole and leveled the soil. I think this will make a great spot for my corn. Usually potatoes go here but I want to try something new. 9 stalks of corn with be sitting here in a few months if all goes right. But for now those leaves and stuff have time to break down before I sow.
After getting the home for my corn straightened out, I then prep the area for the radishes, squash, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions,melons, and so on. I do this by turning the soil the old fashioned way, with just a shovel and my boot leather. I stay away from using a tiller because I feel like it disturbs the life in the soil too much. I hate the idea of all of those worms I worked so hard to attract getting sliced to bits.
There was a few worms in every shovel full. So much that I had to fight the urge to collect them for fishing, but, I hold back from that in my garden. These critters have a job to do! I value seeing many worms just imagining how many nutrient dense castings the are left in their wake.
I was tired after doing all of that digging but my work was not done. I still had to prep the slope for the melons and my picking/ watering trail was also covered in leaves and weeds. Getting that done made it possible for me to get to and fro without stomping in the garden now that its been turned.
The only thing I did not get to this day was redoing the strawberry patch cage, despite that a huge difference was made. Over the weekend I plan to get some seeds and start sowing the cold season crops. I am very excited for this years garden.
Thank you for reading!
For more please:
Upvote &
Subscribe
Be sure to check out 