Spring Planning for the Vegetable Garden

It's during these dark days of winter that I start my planning.  Sitting in a warm house, with a cat for company, I sketch out my veggie garden and start planning the rotation of vegetables.  I am trying to work on a 3 year rotation as it helps prevent insect pests and diseases from building up in specific areas of the garden.  The constant moving of veggies also means that nutrients are more evenly taken from the soil and replenished.

Where to plant the garlic?

A piece of graph paper, pencil and the all important ERASER are all I need.

I check back through the past years designs and determine where to next.

Beets and turnips in a newly renovated bed chock full of manure and compost as I've had trouble growing these in past due to poor soil.  Tomatoes must go in a location not yet used as I don't want to risk blight.  Where to find space for the vines of zucchini and pumpkin.  Choices are based on soil health, where other plants once stood and how much space each plant will need.

Zucchini's need a lot of space

Another important aspect of this ritual is checking my seed stock.  A list of all my seeds was made so I know what I need to make space for.

It was a bit of a shock this year going through the fridge.  How did I manage to accumulate 23 varieties of tomatoes?  Or 13 types of lettuce?  5 types of beans?  and the dill - oh my.  I have inadvertently collected enough dill seed from my garden to supply an entire dill pickle factory.

Attending Seedy Saturday at the ACORN conference in November was no help.  How could I resist all those pretty packets of organic seed of what might just be my new favourite variety?  From Tourne Sol I purchased Red Cored Chantenay carrots.  From High Mowing Organic Seeds there is Green Towers Romaine Lettuce.  Johnny's had bright lights Swiss Chard.  Hope Seeds had New York Early onions and Mammoth Grey Stripe Sunflower.

The good news is that my seed order this year will truly be small.  Unlike last year where I set a budget and then managed to instantaneously spend double the amount.  A second packet of carrots perhaps, some peas and cucumbers.  That really is all.  I do like to add flowers to my veggie patch as well but that too is taken care of.  I gathered bags of seed this year in the garden.  Cosmos, borage, bachelor buttons, nigella and columbine are all ready for their piece of real estate.

Now spring, I'm ready for you!

ACORN - It's not Just for Farmers

My veggie garden is a lot smaller than your average farm

Over the last year or so the name ACORN has come up a number of times in my blog travels.  The Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network seemed interesting but I must admit I wrote it off at first as something just for farmers.  I dated an organic farmer once but I don't think that qualifies me to join a farming network.  However, I saw another post recently advising the annual conference was coming to Charlottetown and I decided to take a closer look.

Three days of workshops from November 22 - 24 covered everything from debates on tractors v. hand tools, to seed collecting, fruit trees, starting a grass farm, and permaculture.  Some of the workshops were clearly geared toward organic farming operations but there were a number of workshops that intrigued me enough to buy a ticket.

I took a Friday afternoon off from work and made my way down to the conference centre, finding a seat in a presentation by Dr. Andrew Hammermeister titled The Origin of Soil and its Properties.  Soil science is noted to be a relatively young field of study but as most of us gardeners know, soil is our most important commodity.  Although the technical terminology of this session bogged my brain down at times I must say it was a joy to listen to a presenter who was so clearly enamoured with his topic.  My only complaint with this session was that it should have been twice as long.  Dr. Hammermeister's interest in soil was infectious and he clearly had a lot more to say on the subject, even having to skip over parts of his talk as he was running out of time.  Soil ties into everything we do, whether we have a farm or a flower garden.  It's such a basic stepping stone in our human survival and I would have loved to spend more time discussing it.

Cilantro gone to seed in my garden

One workshop wasn't enough for me so back I came on Saturday to hear presenter Dan Brisebois talk about seed collecting.  Although I'm quite familiar with collecting seeds, due to my work as a seed collector for Van Dusen Gardens, there's always room to learn more about a subject and this lecture was no exception.  It was interesting to hear about collecting seed from a farming perspective and I picked up a few pointers on cross pollination and growing organic seed.

One thing that struck me during the conference was the amount of academics involved in farming now.  Back when my mom lived on a farm in Saskatchewan you had a lot of kids who helped out.  Farming was primarily taught, hands on, generation to generation.  When the kids grew up you parcelled off some land to them and you all kept working.  At this conference I was hearing about the struggles for new farmers trying to acquire land to farm, money to purchase tools for the job, and school loans for degrees in agriculture and sciences.  It takes a lot these days to be a farmer.  You need a working knowledge of economics, agriculture, machinery, and animal husbandry just to name a few.  The result though is that the people who are farming are really passionate about what they do.

Unfortunately two workshops only proved to be a teaser for me and now I'm thinking about next year.   ACORN conferences are held each year in the atlantic provinces.  If you have the time to attend I would highly recommend them.  Despite my trepidation that I would feel out of place at the conference I found instead that all of us were there because we share the same basic principles of caring about our environment and our food.  That sort of setting isn't such a bad place to hang out.

2012 Vegetable Garden Review - The Tragedies

Vegetable gardens consist of mainly annual plants which we harvest or pull out at the end of each season.  This is a fantastic opportunity to start fresh each year.  I learn from the previous years problems and plan on changes for the season ahead.

The weather is finally taking a turn for proper cold this week and it's time I took a look back at the 2012 gardening season.

Late frosts killed some early seedlings

Overall I really don't have any major complaints this year.  After 3 years of expansion the space I have cultivated is quite substantial and I'm able to grow most everything I want.  However, I'm still working on getting the soil to a point where it's nutrient rich enough to support heavy feeding vegetable crops.  In one particular bed I added bonemeal, bloodmeal, lime, manure and compost.  After a lot of work that bed finally produced a decent crop of spinach.  But that kind of work needs to be done to every bed.  Something I haven't yet accomplished.

This resulted in yet another poor year for beets and rutabagas.

Cuttings from a rutabaga with brown heart

My beets continually germinate and then refuse to grow.  I'm lucky to get more than 4 or 5 beets every year.  Rutabagas grew but were continually bothered by cabbage caterpillars and when I finally got a look at the roots they were riddled with brown heart.

Good soil promotes healthy plants so before anything else I need to keep working on that soil so that my plants are better able to fend off pest attacks.

Another issue this year has been weeds.  I have a real problem with sheep sorrel on my property.

This perennial weed spreads very aggressively via rhizomes and I have a really hard time keeping it out the veggie beds.  Even the raised beds are no match for this beast.  I really don't have an answer to how to deal with this.  Short of spraying all three acres with Round Up (which is not going to happen) perennial weeds are here to stay.

A big issue in spring was poor germination.  It seemed to be a combination of bad seed and bad conditions.  We had so little rain throughout the spring and summer and although I did water I don't think it was enough.  The result was a handful of stunted parsley plants, a dozen carrots, and a pretty gappy looking row of peas.  I will be throwing out a number of seed packets and starting fresh next season and remembering to water well those first weeks seeds get planted out.

There were supposed to be peas in that bed

My last big issue this season was onions.  Some days I question my sanity when it comes to onions.  I have never grown a satisfactory onion and yet every year I try to no avail.  If anyone out there has some advice with regard to onions I would be forever grateful.  I have tried seed and I have tried sets.  I have tried different varieties in raised beds and in the ground.  Each year the plants grow a few inches and then suddenly shrivel up and die.  Is this another issue with my soil or is there something else going on here?  One day I hope to solve the puzzle.

A Change of Seasons

It's dark when I leave in the morning and close to dark when I arrive home in the evenings now.

The rain has been continuous for weeks, turning the lawn bright green and bringing a flush of fall mushrooms.

In the last week the temperatures have become quite cold though and we have had fires to warm the house and take the chill out of the air.

In the garden the asters have already lost their lustre and are closing up shop for the season.  We spent time last weekend pulling the last of the vegetables out of the garden.  Tomatoes, beans, peppers, zucchini were all pulled from the vines and brought indoors.

Green tomatoes brought indoors to ripen

Frost hasn't struck yet but it has been oh so close on more than a few nights.  I have been busy continuing to clean out vegetable beds.  Pulling plants and weeds, adding lime and compost to the beds and finally adding a protective layer of straw for the winter.

The straw will keep the cats out of the beds and keep the soil from blowing away in the winter wind.

All around us leaves have begun to turn colour and drift to the ground.  And off in the distance calls can be heard.  Searching the internet I finally discovered the source.

We have been hearing the second set of calls in the above video.  At first we thought it was children in the distance but it quickly became clear the sound was not human.  Perhaps there will be pups in the back field next year?

Creating an Oversize Garden Bed

You might be wondering after reading my last post what exactly I'm doing with my time if I can't manage to pull out a couple hollyhocks.

Working on the entrance bed is the answer to that.

This bed has gone through a lot of changes in the last couple years and I continue to pick away at it this season.  (you can read more about the trials and tribulations of creating this bed in this post)

At the end of last summer this bed was a mess.  I didn't have the time to complete such a big project and I had jumped ahead too quickly, buying plants I wasn't ready to put in the ground.  Half the bed was covered in weeds and the other half had plants thrown into the ground haphazardly before the snow flew.  I knew I needed a better plan when I started work again this spring.  To add to the trouble, in January I watched the garden flood and realized it was imperative that I think a little harder about the placement of plants.  So I drew a picture.

Actually as you can see this version was my fourth picture.  It wasn't the last either.  In fact, the plan I finally went with was changed on the fly as I worked in the garden this spring but it was really helpful having an idea in mind as I worked.

Initially when I started the clean up it was mid-April.  The ground was damp and the weather cool.  Digging was relatively easy and I spent hours in this garden developing a rhythm.  I started in the area most overcome with weeds, digging and pulling.  Hauling weeds away (and never ending glass shards) then hauling fresh compost back and beefing up the soil.  The sides of the bed were edged, plants were moved and then finally mulch topped it all off.

I started in the weediest sections

Mulch turned out to be a real life saver this time around.  Last year I left the ground bare and as soon as my back was turned the area would fill in with weeds.  This bed is approximately 50 feet long and 30 feet wide at its widest point.  The narrow section in the middle is approximately 18 feet across.  Quite a huge space to tackle so this time around I worked in areas about 4 x 4 feet to start, clearing and replanting, and finally mulching which allowed me to move on to next section without the fear of a weed takeover.

Clearing ground a few feet at a time

I had expected to have this bed finished by the time the weather turned hot but sadly I was wrong.  I'm still digging.  There's a lesson here somewhere about taking on too much.

At the beginning of June I had only finished this small section

The good news is that I'm getting there.  I've gone past the halfway mark and I'm relatively happy with how it looks.  It's a bit sparse as the plants are quite small yet but hopefully in a couple years time things will fill in and start looking proper.

As seen from a dirty upstairs window! 

Unfortunately the weather in the last week has turned summer hot so some of the work has stopped.  I'm no longer moving plants around and instead just plunking in the new ones I have purchased and trying to get them settled for a hot dry summer.  But weed removal is continuing, as is edging and mulching.  I hope to get the section on the left cleared of weeds in the next few weeks and then put this project aside for the year.  I'm ready to walk away for awhile and try an activity that doesn't involve weeding!

Let the Gardening Begin!

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed this week, but in a nice way.  The temperatures have risen, the lawn is starting to colour and I have a list of garden chores as long as my arm.  I started out in the veggie garden turning over beds and removing weeds.  I also added lime and bone meal as I've had some issues with the soil in that area.  Then I tried something new.  I planted some seeds.  After reading Niki Jabour's blog - The Year Round Veggie Gardener - and buying her book I was convinced I could get a little earlier harvest this year.  So claytonia, arugula, corn salad, peas and a couple lettuces were put in the ground as a trial.  Thus far the arugula, claytonia and one lettuce have germinated.  I'm watching overnight temperatures each day and covering up the seedlings with a tarp when the temperatures dip and thus far things are going well.

Walking around other parts of the yard I'm seeing all sorts of signs of spring.  The squill are now in full bloom.

Various plants in the entrance bed are starting to push out new growth like these lamb's ears.

and the lady's mantle

Which means I needed to get my behind out there and start weeding the entrance bed.  Last year we removed the sod and put in a large bed at the front of the house.  See Here.  We added compost and some plants in spring but things got behind schedule and I found myself stuffing plants into the bed in no particular order late in the summer.  That has to be corrected this year.  Sections that became over grown with weeds need to fixed up and plants put back in a more aesthetically pleasing way.

Saturday morning the bed looked like this

The weeds had taken over in this section.  And to add insult to injury I found more glass.

No matter how much I dig in this bed, just when I think I've removed every piece of garbage possible the ground seems to heave up yet another chunk of glass.  In another 20 years I'll bet I'm still digging glass out of this bed.  

After four hours of digging the bed looked much better.

I've still got a ways to go but I was able to move several columbine right away into this space.  Eventually hostas will fill this section in.  It's so nice to dig right now when the weeds are still small and ground is soft.  The job went quite easily aside from constantly picking glass out of the dirt.

I was distracted from my task though when this fella showed up.

That is a tractor hauling a manure spreader.  And I was so giddy I ran outside with a camera.

The tines in the spreader chop up all the manure and normally it would be spread out over farm fields.  In this case though our neighbour sat the spreader in one spot and let it pile up on the ground underneath.  

Placed close to the veggie garden for easy access

What a huge pile, and it cost me nothing!  Can you believe that?  I'm tickled.  I'll be adding this to my compost bins to speed up the process which in turn will be used on beds and trees.  Spring is off to a very good start this year.

Flooding in the Garden

The weather over the last few months has been difficult to predict to say the least.  From 10 degrees below freezing to ten degrees above, we've had snow, frost, ice pellets, rain, sunshine and wind wind wind.  Throughout all this I've been watching the garden with some curiosity.  How will the plants fare in spring?  Will they be wind burnt?  Will they be broken?  Will they survive at all?  The latest round of strange weather really has me worried.  We had a bit of a snow blow in and everything was nicely covered when the temperature climbed back up again and the rain began.  I wasn't able to take a picture  at the height of the problem but this is what I was looking at the following day.

It had frozen over at this point but you can clearly see the water collecting

In my newly created entrance bed, right in the middle there is a low spot.  And that area has turned into a wet mess.  It was seriously flooded the morning of the rain and this picture was taken the following day.  The water still hadn't drained but rather had frozen into pools of ice.

I have been working the past month on a new plan for this very bed.  I rush planted most of the perennials in late summer and had intended to move most of them come spring.  I had just put the finishing touches on this new planting scheme and I was quite proud of myself when the rain began.  Now looking at the pools of water I'm realizing a new plan will need to be put in place.

My first thought was I should try and fill that low spot in.  I had considered this when building the bed but I ran out of compost and decided to leave it was it was.  I should have realized what that would mean.  Now I'm wondering how much it would cost to bring in a load of soil and try and even this out.  The thing is I don't know enough about drainage and water movement to really understand how best to fix this.  I suspect that even if I add soil to this area the water won't necessarily disappear.  I would need to raise the level of the entire bed, which is substantial, and then the water will simply run into the grass around it.  I had intended to put a walkway in this area as well so allowing water to run off into the grass isn't ideal either.  In fact, as I look around the yard I see a number of low spots in our yard that are accumulating water.  Our clay soil doesn't drain easily so this is an issue I believe will continue to crop up.

Another solution is to just work with it.  It will mean changing my planting scheme since some of the plants won't be able to handle wet feet but I think it's a possibility.

The worst flooding is in the centre of the bed but you can see pools of water in other low spots.

Rather than place the red berried elder in the middle of the bed perhaps I could try the High Bush Cranberry which is more tolerant of wet soil and clay.  I also have numerous hostas in this bed which I believe can handle wet toes so maybe they could be moved as a group to some of the wetter spots.

Has anyone else had this problem?  What solution would you use in this situation?

Buying Bulk Compost

Removing the grass from the entrance bed was the first step in a long line of work to complete the flower bed.  After the sod was removed I intended to dig out any garbage that had popped up with the sod and also do some weeding.  I believe this area was used to dispose of garbage in previous years and I'm always finding pieces of glass and other odd items in the dirt. 

Note that I say intended.

Nothing ever goes as planned does it?  Instead I got caught up in finishing the vegetable garden and working on other beds that we had created.  The weeds grew long and the dirt grew hard in my entrance bed.  And then the compost arrived and there was no time to clear the bed.  It seems I will be finding broken glass among my posies for years to come.

I had ordered three yards of compost to be dumped on this bed in order to replace some of the top soil that was removed with the sod.  I also expected it would add humus and nutrients to the soil, making my flowers happy.  What I didn't know is that three yards isn't nearly as much as it sounds like.  This is the pile that was delivered.


Funny, it doesn't look as big as I had thought

Perhaps some of you have ordered compost in bulk form before but this was a first for me.  I've never had a garden large enough.  So when a yard was described to me as 100 square feet at a depth of 3 inches it sounded pretty big.  I actually thought 3 yards was overdoing it but I can always use more compost so I went ahead.  Thank goodness I 'overbought' because 3 yards barely covered my new flower bed.  After I received the compost I actually looked up a cubic yard (perhaps I ought to have done that first?!) and I found this link.  Essentially a cubic yard is about as big as a dishwasher - 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet.  And that is not very big at all.  Instead of buying an excessive amount of compost I had actually purchased too little. Thank goodness my own compost bin was ready for emptying and I was able to add approximately one more yard of my own compost to the bed.

I used the mini trailer to cart compost from my bin to the new bed

Unfortunately the issues didn't stop there.  When I purchased the compost I thought the price was somewhat high but never having purchased it in bulk before and being confused about the amount I was receiving I went ahead with the purchase and didn't second guess the price.  I shouldn't have done that.  Not only was I upset about how little compost I actually received but I was flabbergasted at how much it had cost me.  I checked another nursery sometime later and discovered I had paid twice the amount they were charging.  Let that be a warning - price check before buying!



I just barely managed to cover the bed with compost.
You can see the red dirt poking out around the edges.

 My stupidity did not stop there though.  The final issue was the compost itself.  At first glance it was a dark looking pile and appeared for all intents and purposes like the black gold that is so often described when speaking about compost.  Second glance told a different story.  There were white particles in my compost.  What could that be?  So I got my gloves and dug in.  The compost was light and airy, very dry and sifted between my fingers like sand.  I don't know what your compost looks like but I was highly distressed.  The compost that comes out of my personal bins is a thick material full of insects and worms.  I even found a garter snake hiding in my compost pile this past week.  It's also slightly damp.  My compost is alive and therefore supports other life.  It retains moisture and clumps together forming humus which provides texture to the soil.  As I sifted this new compost in my hands I realized what I had purchased was composed of peat moss (giving it that light airy feel) and perlite (those white bits).  Now, there's nothing wrong with peat moss or perlite.  Both materials are used in gardening and have great moisture retention qualities.  But my intention wasn't to buy peat moss or perlite.  As I sifted I realized - I had essentially bought three yards of potting soil.

The moral to the story is, like with so many things, buyer beware.  It was my responsibility as a consumer to do a price check and make sure I knew what I was buying.  If you're looking at purchasing compost in bulk know what a cubic yard looks like.  Then phone several companies and compare prices.  Finally, go to the company and see what it is they are selling.  Run your hands through it and satisfy yourself that it is indeed compost.  I didn't think it was necessary to ask if the compost I was buying was really compost.  How much of a difference could there be?  But obviously I was wrong.  Get a handful of the stuff and make sure your compost isn't full of additives. 

Have you ever ordered compost in bulk and been surprised by what you received?  Is using additives common practice?

Winter Storms

The weather these past weeks really has me baffled.  When we moved to Atlantic Canada I thought we would never see a green Christmas again.  Prince Edward Island is known to have lots of snow in the winters and below freezing temperatures.  We are a solid zone 5 garden here.  There was snow last year, although not very much.  This year there is not a drop.  Instead my yard has become a mud pit.

The little snow we had in November melted as the temperatures soared up to plus 12 degrees celcius.  Rains have poured down and winds have whipped up everything in their path.  Three weeks in a row we have been hit by a major storm.  I came home from work one day last week to an odd sight.

Honey, says I, did you move the picnic table?

Nope.  That's some wind eh?

This table used to reside ON the porch, not beside it.

Indeed.

Even stranger was the bird I found.  I'm going to warn you all right now, if you don't like gross photos then scroll far down the page.  He isn't dismembered or anything so it's not really bad but he is dead.  I was just so dumbfounded when I found him lying underneath the birch tree.  The thing that struck me immediately was that he doesn't belong here.

WARNING:  I'm going to show the photo now so last chance to avert your eyes.


.................

Can you see what bothered me so much?  Look at his legs and feet.  His legs are seated far back on his body and his feet are webbed.  I don't know what this bird is (and if you know please tell me!) but his legs and feet are indicators that he is a sea bird.  He should not be in my yard.  Google Earth tells me I live just over 1km from the ocean as the crow flies.  Not a terribly long distance but far enough.  I'm guessing but considering the winds we've had, gusts up to 120 km/hr, it's possible this little guy got caught in the wind and was blown to our yard where he was slammed into the birch tree.  The power of these storms is tremendous and it's scary how they keep coming.

We are fortunate to have escaped any real damage thus far but others have not been so lucky.  The north shore of the island has been hit particularly hard.  We walked down the beach today in North Rustico and the damage was obvious.

The siding on this lighthouse has been ripped right off.  To read more about the storm damage here on the island click here.  More photos can also be viewed here.

With temperatures continually jumping around the thermometer the ground is not as it should be.  There should be an insulating coat of snow and frost to protect plants and keep the ground from washing away but that hasn't been the case.  Luckily I had the forethought to put a good layer of mulch on almost everything so the damages at this point appears to be minimized.  The birches are all standing tall and have lots of buds waiting to open for next year.

But the evergreens are showing some wear and tear.  The needles of this white pine are tipped with yellow.  So many factors could be contributing to this.  The ground is sopping and the tree could be drowning in poorly draining soil.  Or conversely, these high winds could be continually stripping the moisture from his needles.

Other trees simply couldn't handle the wind and tipped right over.  We have two spruces that were dug out of the ditch and transplanted in our yard.  They never seemed to have a good root structure so I'm not surprised but it's always disappointing to see this.

Frankly I think this tree should be removed.  If it's roots are unstable after 6 months in the ground I don't think there's a good chance it will improve.  I don't want him to grow up into a big unstable tree as that's a danger and a liability.  But hubby has a soft spot for this tree and has stood him back up.  So we'll leave it for now and see how it fairs in the next storm, which is forecast for tomorrow.

Vegetable Garden Update

Scotia tomatoes doing very well in my Square Foot boxes

I really haven't said much about my vegetable garden lately.  I walk past it almost every day and check in but it hasn't felt like there was much to report.  This is a GREAT sign.  The reason there isn't much to report is because nothing has gone sideways.  The Square Foot Gardening boxes are working out just as they were supposed to.  The peat, compost, vermiculite soil mix is virtually weed free and the vegetables crowd out the few weeds that have made it in.  And when I do find weeds they are exceptionally easy to pull out.  This has been a good year in that we've had plenty of sun with good amounts of rain thrown in so watering is not an issue.  And the cats have left the boxes alone for the last month which is a bonus.

Overall I couldn't be more pleased.  My biggest complaint would be I need more boxes.  I planted five boxes.  One of these has been underused since I left space for the cantalope which died but I could easily double the amount of boxes next year.  I'm finding many of my plants are quite crowded.  I lost a square of cilantro to the carrots, and the lettuce is fighting it out for space and trying to overtake the onions.  I followed the guidelines set out in the Square Foot Gardening book but I'm starting to see bug and snail damage and personally I think a little air circulation between plants would help this problem.

Lettuce is lovely but crowded

Some of the plants are new to me and I'm getting a sense of whether they work or not.  I have grown the Simpson Elite lettuce pictured above before and am quite happy with it.  However, the Tortoiseshell spinach was a bit of a surprise.  The plants were quite small and had white patches all over the leaves.  Then they bolted.  So we've basically had no spinach this year which is a huge disappointment.  I just pulled all the plants this evening and planted some more seeds.  Maybe we can get a fall crop of spinach instead?

As well the First Crop beets are a bit of a puzzle.  The leaves are quite nice and we've been using them for salads but there's no beets attached!  Seriously, if you pull the plant there's a tiny somewhat shrivelled beet and a long thin root.

Where's the beet?!

On the plus side the cilantro has been absolutely delightful.  It's now starting to go to seed after all our hot weather but I love it because it still smells great and looks pretty too.

Cilantro beginning to flower

Some new pests have shown up in the garden but so far it's a minor inconvenience.  It appears the crows love the Sweet Millions cherry tomatoes as much as we do.

If we don't pick the ripening tomatoes every day the birds steal them.  Recently I've noticed they're taking the green tomatoes too.  The remnants I find strewn in the grass.  The plant is loaded with tomatoes though so I figure we can share.

More concerning is the fresh pile of dirt that has appeared next to one of the boxes.  Somebody has tunneled underneath.  I have no idea who, or why.  More importantly, why aren't those cats doing more to solve this problem?

And finally, the carrots are ready

Weeds in my Spinach

My vegetable boxes have been breached .... with weeds.

Any idea which one?

Here's a refresher of what the boxes looked like

1.  The first box was lined on the bottom with newspaper and no grass was removed

2.  The second box had the grass dug out from underneath and the ground was lightly 'forked'

3.  The last boxes had the grass dug out, rocks removed and compost added.


If you answered #1 you'd be correct.  It was the newspaper.

I have a confession, this first happened a month ago.  It took no time for the weeds to get in.  Instinctively I grabbed that first weed and yanked it out.  Pretended like it didn't happen.  But this time they're back and bigger than before.

What went wrong?  Initially I laid the newspaper so it went under the wood frame and a collar surrounded it.  But the crows were making nests at that time and ripped all the visible pieces out for themselves.  Likely they tore pieces of the newspaper out from under the box.  Another big reason is that newspaper simply breaks down quite quickly.  I had hoped it would last the season but obviously not.  The moral of the story, don't use newspaper to line your boxes, it's not going to keep the weeds out.

How are these boxes operating otherwise?  Fabulous.  I really really like them.  A few weed seeds have blown in but otherwise there are few weeds and the soil mixture is so light that they're super easy to pull out.

The tomatoes are obviously quite happy with them and they look pretty snazzy too.