Into the Ground

Well, that was not as easy as we'd supposed. Today was the day that Camille and I sunk our first raised bed into the sandy backyard...and filled it with compost. So much compost. So much heavy compost, the majority of which will rest unused by the side of our driveway, and will one day come to be known as "Compost Hill" or "Mt. Compost" or "That Place Where Camille Buried Her First Husband (and Smiled More Than She Should Have Even Though the Sun Was Intermittently Yet Directly in Her Eyes."

Ah, but before the compost went into the raised bed, the raised bed was treated with thirty-two feet of polymer lining. One of the men at the discount lumber yard suggested the idea, predicting that the sides of the raised beds would rot considerably slower if they weren't directly in contact with the dirt. An excellent idea. Better still, Camille and I had a landmark moment: we were able to work together hammering the lining to the inside of the raised bed without (me) giving helpful suggestions on the best way to hammer a nail into wood or (Camille) rushing through the job, quality be damned. Hurray for us.

Once the lining was in, we dug four post-holes in the dirt, and sunk the bed. Then came the compost, four heaping wheelbarrows full. This was around the time when we realized that Mt. Compost (delivered in two hydraulic truck-fulls over the weekend) would become a permanent fixture. It's not that we won't be able to find a use for so much compost, it's that we'll never be able to move it. We just don't have the will.

The first raised bed is in the ground though, and there's something to be said for a good, hard day of work. Only five more to go.









(Note: the photo at the top of this entry of a potential murder/cover-up is actually a photo of the four heaping wheelbarrows full of compost that were used in the raised bed, not Mt. Compost. Mt. Compost is considerably larger, and set twenty-five body-lengths to the right)

--David

It's Official!

"Spring is here!" declared the peas.

Final Resting Place

Farming is manly. Gardening is less so. It is therefore essential that I take every opportunity to prove my worth to Camille as Chief Man on Lincoln Street. Enter the raised beds.

We'd been thinking about building raised beds for over a year, but until two weeks ago, I didn't even own a drill. So when Camille handed me the blueprints for the raised beds of her dreams, I was a little intimidated. Ah, but there's nothing that a trip to the lumber yard won't cure. There's something about a warehouse full of freshly cut nature to get you in the right frame of mind.

(I am ignoring the part where I paid for the wood and nearly fell over--as it turned out, cedar is so expensive that we will only be building one raised cedar bed this year. The rest will be constructed out of less durable wood (or maybe even brick). My God, lumber's expensive.)

Back at the house, I set immediately to work at the foot of our driveway amidst the steadily melting snow. I was somewhat nervous at first, because the lumber was so expensive, but after the first few screws were firmly through the planks my confidence grew. And really, building a raised bed isn't so tough--it's just a big box anchored by a couple of stout posts--and in less than two hours...voila! My first raised bed.

Spring is (Almost) Sprung

It's been hard waiting through these couple of weeks of cold weather. We had single digits with lots of wind, one last blast from Old Winter. Maybe "in like a lion, out like a lamb" will hold true this March.

We've begun seedings -- but later than last year. I think we did fine last year with starting beets on 26 Feb, but we were also lucky with weather. I get itchy to start early because I can't stop thinking about how soon we were able to plant in Washington, DC, and in Kentucky. Up here the common wisdom is to wait until after Memorial Day! Too late. I can't wait that long.

I've heard arguments that starting later just means the soil is warmer and everything catches up to early plantings anyway. Maybe. But I want to take a chance. Raised beds will help. Even last year, without raised beds, I think we had vegetables sooner -- and they were stronger -- than other people's. So we split the difference: hedged a little and waited a little and started this weekend.

The old man at Agway (who always gives me advice, sometimes grouchily -- I love him anyway, and I think he likes the questions) said that if we have raised beds and row covers, we can get away with a late April planting! That makes me excited!

I cleared all the bulbs off of the bay window in the dining room, and David hung a light there. Right now all we have planted are beets (golden and chiogga) and broccoli (small miracle and waltham). Next weekend, we will move these seedlings -- plus scores more -- onto the front porch, which will serve as our makeshift greenhouse.

The cats have already taken up camp there, sleeping alternately in the my grandmother's old chair or in a puddle of sunlight on the floor.

In order to get more soil for the beets (without going out for another Agway run), I pulled up some garlic I'd planted in a small pot as an experiment.


They were tiny, probably much like the ones in our garden right now. The straw covering the ones outside hide the shoots that appeared last fall. We aren't sure if it's a good place to have planted the garlic, but this first year is a test garden. Well, the next twenty years will be test gardens!

I am interested in starting a section called a no-dig garden. Here's a link to some info. It sounds economical and fun. Supposedly, no-dig gardens can be built on top of concrete! I hope it works. If so, by mid-summer we will have some rick nutrients to add to the hungry plants.

David needs to do a post and report on his big project: raised beds!

--Camille