Busy school vacation ! Even though we still have snow outside the two major projects were accomplished.
The first one was to turn a bed for tomatoes. I did this with shovel in hand and patience in taking the 20 + rocks that came out after trying the turn the soil over. I had some rye grass growing in Vinnie's garden, I pulled it and dumped in this new tomato plot. Also, I added bark mulch from a dead tree that its at the edge of the plot. I covered the whole plot with the soil that I was turning and later I scattered a half a bail of hay all over the bed, so that it will suppress any weeds that would like to grow in the new fresh soil.
The second project was to make a new bed for peas, away from the rest of the garden so that it doesn't shade other plants. Last year the peas covered most of the afternoon sun from tomatoes, carrots and other plants. This year the bed is set back and it is a U-shaped plot in which you can enter from one side and collect fruit from the inside as well as the outside.
Started carrots and beets indoors last weekend. In the seed packets you will read that it is NOT recommended to transplant carrots, but I figured out a way to successfully transplanted and that is that you have to wait until the seedlings have 2 or more true leaves to move them to the garden. As for beets, I usually do the same thing. Make sure that the beds are turned and loose for these two veggies.
Trimmed the branches of the 3 apple trees growing by our house. Every year you are supposed to cut the leading branch which forces the tree to focus on lateral branch growth. I cut the old canes of the raspberries all the way to the base of the plant, make sure you don't cut the old-new growth canes, since those are the ones setting fruit this year. You can tell the canes that are dead from the ones that are still going to come out of dormancy by the color and flexibility of the canes.
Cut the dead kale plants at the base and left the beds undisturbed. That way the roots decompose with the help of worms. This winter was too harsh and long and the kale plants did not make it back.
Wild ramps are starting to come out. Also called wild onions, they are used just like scallions in cooking. Last year I moved some of the plants to different locations thru out the garden and they are growing beautifully.
The goats are also enjoying their new location by the garden. We are keeping them in with a flexible solar powered fence. They get twice as much sun as they did at their old home and they have plenty of space to lay down and eat all kinds of vegetation.
