Plantings

Tuesday I planted spinach, peas, and lettuce seeds and planted 3 red cabbage, 3 Cheddar Hybrid cauliflower, and 3 brussels sprouts compliments of my neighbor. Today I planted onions. 24 Mars, 128 Walla Walla, and 280 Copra. Starting to look like a garden.

Planting beets and carrots

The soil is now dry enough to work and so the planting will begin. Beets and carrots will be planted first and I plant them the same way. I plant a 12 foot row of each. In the fresh stilled soil I make a mound about 2 inches higher then the original surface and then make a row with a rake the width of the rake. I thinly scatter the seeds through-out the 12 inch wide row and cover them with a thin layer of fine soil. I then pack the seeds down with the back of my rake. Not done yet. I then form a small and shallow depression on each side of the row for drainage. If you get a real heavy rain those little ditches will protect your seed bed or tiny seedlings. If you don't get a heavy rain you just got lucky.

Planting weeds

When you plant vegetable seeds in freshly tilled soil you need to pack the soil on top of the seeds. Weed seeds are already in the soil and every time you make a foot print you plant 50 of them. In a few hours of planting in the garden you have planted 20,000 weeds. If you rake, hoe or rototill away the foot prints you will have planted no weeds and will have a weed free garden like mine.

Weed free garlic

I planted the garlic on Oct. 29, 2009 which is about two weeks late in my area due to a very wet fall. Not a single one came up in the fall, but all 52 of them came up this spring. The soil is now dry enough to hoe and will be ready for the big snow this weekend.

Prune Raspberries

Nice day to prune the purple raspberries.

Planting cabbage

I plant my cabbage seeds under a board. I use a two by four but you can use something bigger if you need more plants. In hot weather they will germinate in 48 hours so take the board off at that time. In cooler weather it may take as long as 5 days. I plant several cabbage seeds about every 10 days and have a constant supply all season. Broccoli also works well and I have done parsley. The potential is unlimited.

Snow

Did a little garden work today. Got rid of a three foot deep snow drift in the corner of the garden.

March