Garden pics :)

Time for a little garden tour.. I took the pics on Sunday morning, but I'm also going to put in stuff I've done since then.

A long shot from the FOH garden. Off to the right in front of the garage door are all the fruit pots that need to be hauled out back and planted. The greenhouse is standing strong, and that front flap is essential for shade that makes the front porch pleasant. On the left in the back you can barely see the beds.. In the foreground is a sea of grass- half of that is gone as of today- once the sun got too cooking down by the greenhouse, it was time for weeding in the shade. I've now cleaned out the whole planting in area for this years columbines.

A shot of the greenhouse and kennel beds. In the foreground you can see where I spread out a tarp to lay out some composted manure and straw bale flakes to dry. Why did I do that you ask? Because I got those two boxes moved and needing filling. Today I completely weeded out that whole front bed, and started out some sifting on the right side- where the most of the gravel and shallow rooted weeds are.. by the time I got the first couple feet sifted, the sun was nixing anything more there for today- shade is my friend, lol.

A good shot of the setup. Off frame to the left is another tarp where I stacked up the bags of stuff and straw bales- it's a testament to how well they were wrapped for winter 2015/16 that when unbagging 5, only one was really rather gunky... mostly with mushroom mold. That bale I flaked out to dry a bit overnight on Saturday. Three bags of composted manure- really wet stuff. What makes it good to mix into sweet feed but sucks for spreading over a couple boxes. So those got dumped out on Saturday to dry out a bit too. In the back you can see the left box with a first flake fluffed in. I fluffed the flake for a couple reasons- I didn't have enough bales to just straight lay in flakes, and I wanted to spread out and mix up that mushroom mold, and break up the flake matrix into a new matting to better accept what was going on top. There were 11 flakes, 5 went into the left box, 6 into the right since it's a deeper box.

A closeup of the boxes as I started. The box in the back has one flake on it so far, the box in front is just the basic inch I gave of smothering paper layer to seal in the bottom, shovels of dirt from the bed removal, and some grass on top. got the green mulch, I'm using it :) The carpet edge goes under the box by an inch or so to help with weeds too. Carpet is wonderful stuff.

After flaking up the straw, had some fun stomping it down real well again. Then a bag and a half each of composted manure on top. I watered in with a couple gallons each box to help tamp stuff down a bit more for settling.

The fill after the peat and veggie dirt mix. I used one big bale of peat moss and 4 bags of veggie dirt. Mixed up a quarter batch at a time and spread around with a small rake- it was wonderfully zen. Watered in this layer with a couple more gallons per box to help it settle in before packing a very full barrow divided between the two of more grass over the top.

While my grass fairy was off collecting that heap that you now see packing those two raised beds to the top, I started working in the rest of the smother bed action. I had just enough carpet left over that I was able to do the whole front line of the lasagna beds. This front corner is cardboard and one bale- I had barely enough, because I wasn't also covering the carpet aisle- didn't need to. Around the light pole area got two bales of straw and a good heap of cardboard- It needed the cleanup, and this year it's were the peppers growing in their containers are going to live. Nice big spot for them.

Ah, and cleaned up the far corner to with a new smother layer. I had the cardboard, but not quite enough straw at one bale because I was also renewing the aisle on that side. In the foreground is this years big brassica garden- Kalettes in back by the fennel, a row of romensco broccoli, a row of green cabbage, and a row of red cabbage. You can see the two lemon balms in the front corner of the next bed looking good, and the two cages for the asparagus beans to grow on this year. The far bed is going to be some corn, and maybe some greens.

A shot from the far end. You can see how loose that straw looks by comparison to the other end, but it was a darn sight better than the tall grass mess that was there. The carpet on the front looks great, and lays in nicely. The three bronze fennels are spectacular- we hate the stuff as a food, but it is beautiful and the bennie bugs love it. While in the cleanup, I discovered several borage sprouts popping up in the front of the beds too, which is rather nice.

A bunch of seedlings enjoying the sun... everything has been moved from the solarium and porch down to the greenhouse now. Monday night I had to tuck everything under cover because we got a thunderstorm with hail... but tonight they all stay out.

Some pots lined up and ready to move around... Starting on the left in the kitty litter bin is hardy kiwi, three lemon balms, a couple baptista and foxgloves, the dozen gallon pots of lavender, and the avocado tree.

From the nice shady corner of the greenhouse at this time in the afternoon. In the forefront is some dried grass. That marks where the helios radish is.. beets and carrots haven't done nada. Right close to the garlic is the transplanted beer radish. And a nice big area in between that I can still do what I want with. With the way the rows are matching up, I can put in future raised beds moving from the pole, and will still have a nice aisle further down the time line...

The old raised beds area still needs the whole round of attention too, starting with some solarization. And the stair garden needs it's cleanup and set in of this years plants. The tree garden needs it's tending too, lol. But so far, so good!