I’ve been late to get my garden started this season, but made some progress yesterday and today.
I started my peppers and cucumber plants from seed, and some basil, and bought the same tomato plants (golden cherry) from the garden center – those went in about 2 weeks ago. I also bought some basil from the garden center.
It’s not hard work, just time-consuming to get everything into the raised beds.
First I hydrated the soil a little. I waited a bit and then watered it some more. Moist soil and potting mix absorbs a lot more water than dry soil. I added some organic fertilizer. Watered everything again and mixed in the fertilizer.
I repeated for some kelp meal that I had on hand.
Then I mixed in some “soil builder.” Every other year I buy some organic material mix to add in.
This year I tried Bumper Crop Organic Soil Builder.
Over the growing season, I add organic fertilizer pellets a couple of times, and also liquid fertilizer when things start fruiting. Having some organic life in the soil helps keep things growing over time.
Plant food = quick pick-me-up
Organic fertilizer = long-term nutrients
Organic matter = long-term nutrients
Watering, mixing, amending, repeat. It’s a process.
I’m going with fewer plants buried ollas this year – really large ones in my tomato and cucumber beds, and small ones in my pepper beds.
Do you see the wood in the top right corner? I moved all that out of my workshop. It’s mostly cedar that I ordered year to build 1 or 2 new elevated garden beds to replace on-ground beds that have been invaded by tree roots.
I had it on my garden bed over the winter, covered by a tarp, and moved it to the ground after we added mulch.
The goal now is to have the new elevated raised bed(s) built by August so I can plant fall crops. Maybe carrots?
I didn’t get garlic into the raised beds on time this year either. Started my pepper and cucumber plants late. Got them all in the ground late.
There are fewer plants than in previous years, but we’ll see how that goes.
I went back to the garden center and got some rosemary, Thai basil, and lavender. Those went into 7-gallon buckets, as did some of my pepper plants.
I potted marigolds around the beds.
I have 15 pepper plants this year. 2 years ago I had 44. Last year I had 42. I lost 2 beds due to the tree roots, and also want to see what happens if I give fewer plants a lot more room to grow. Maybe it will look neater too.
Here’s what my tomato bed looked like last year in the third week of May.
This is what the same garden bed looked like in the middle of July last year. That was just 7 weeks of growth.
Let’s see how things look this year with 2 tomato plants, 2 cucumber plants, and 3 mini cantaloupe plants.
The heavy work is done, all that’s left is watering, fertilizing, and trellising. If all goes well, all that leads to harvesting.
As for the new elevated raised bed project, I still can’t settle on a design. I also need a wheelbarrow, preferably rustproof and USA-made. Or maybe a dump cart. I have to empty my root-infested beds before I can dismantle the wood (maybe I can reuse it) and start over.
A lot of my raised beds are starting to show their age, and so I might be replacing more of them next year. It’d be nice to have a new standard design, whether the beds are on the ground or elevated with feet.
