It has been more than 3 weeks since my last update on the herb garden that 
Because every little step is bringing us closer to the dream and becouse the FIRST GARDEN JOURNAL CHALLENGE FOR 2022 is here and we do love a nice challenge, especially a garden related one!
So let's see what's happening to our little piece of land in which we have chosen to drop our sweat :)
In my previous post I told you about the never ending task of making new raised beds for the plants to come. I am glad to say that over 80% of the job has been done and I am truly thrilled that we made it so far. There has been so many moments that I thought that we are not going to make it that now it feels as almost done!
But the new plants are not coming for another, maybe two months and we have to pay some attention to the recently planted ones.
This picture is from the #gardenjournal post that
The wood chips are in several piles on different parts of the field. So what we do is to carry it to the planted beds and make the first layer of mulching. As a first step it is a very thin layer but so are the plants. We intend to keep enriching it as time goes by and the plants are getting bigger.
But it already looks so much better than the naked soil, isn't it?
The marjoram had a hard time with the bad weather of the last weeks but they seem to handle it well and hopefully will flourish when spring comes. We do have a few dead plants (at least they look dead) but in a very small percentage so I guess that it is ok. It is always sad though to look at a spot that you have planted a baby plant and see nothing :(
The rosemary looks more durable. Only one dead out of more than 200 :)
And although it might look tiny to you it is almost double the size since we planted them!
Don't forget. There is time to work and time to rest!
The thing with our wood chips is that they are not enough to cover the whole plot and we didn't want the pathways to be left uncovered. So we went to the one place around here that there is abundance of free organic matter, the olive oil extraction plant.
During the olive's harvest a lot of leaves fall from the tree along with the fruit and they are separated at the plant. That means huge quantities of leaves in one place! The shepherds are the first to gather fresh leaves for their stock but there are enough for all. Anyway I prefer the older leaves that have started to decompose as well as some other byproducts of the olive oil extraction which are super nutritive for the soil. The only disadvantage is that they shouldn't be placed close to the plants roots until they are composted.
So we put this raw material to the pathways. Long term it is very beneficial for the soil, it can't harm the new plants and it makes walking so much smoother :)
Wood chips is not the only thing that we are using for mulching. Actually adding new material is something that will be repeated as often as possible. Today we had some sawdust from the cutting of the firewood that I did the other day.
And slowly slowly we proceed :)
I am supposed to invite two others that might like to join in. Well the challenge is almost over and their isn't much time for someone to prepare a post but I am pretty sure that 
The shots that I am in are taken by
The rest of the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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