growing more food

I have spent this entire month so far working out in the yard clearing out the freeze and winter damage, cutting back the roses and doing some much needed maintenance on the big front flower bed, harvesting and cooking and freezing food from the garden, getting my spring planting started, preparing the ground for a new raised bed which arrived yesterday but which I can't fill with dirt yet because of all the rain we have had and are having. It's wet out there today.

Remember this?

It looks like this now.

Last year you might remember I bought 4 yards of vegetable garden improved soil for about $38 a yard from a big dirt, sand, and gravel company in Rosenberg that was so hot organically that everything I planted turned yellow and shriveled up. After it sat all spring and summer it did grow some beautiful broccoli and cauliflower and the tomatoes I put in earlier are growing well. So now, I need another two yards for the new bed and I'm hesitant to go back to the same company though they told me the mix is a little different this year and they haven't gotten any complaints. I called the local feed store for a recommendation and they hooked me up with a guy who sells caney soil which is supposed to be such primo dirt that adding organic material for fertilizer is unnecessary. He will sell me this soil for $20 a yard and he is much closer. Unfortunately, with the big rain storm Tuesday morning and a small shower yesterday morning and a small shower this morning, it's all wet and muddy and he just wouldn't feel right selling it to me this wet. He apologized about that but I told him I appreciated his integrity. Anyway, it may be mid-week next week before I can get the dirt for the new raised bed so I guess I'll go ahead and pull out the broccoli which I was letting get it's secondary growth and put the onions in the big raised bed.

About that new raised bed. Last I wrote about it I had decided against buying the vinyl 4' x 4' x 11” for $130 and was going to head into Rosenberg for western red cedar and build my own but then I decided to check Costco first and they had an almost identical one except it was 2 - 4' x 4' x 11” that could also be configured as a 4' x 12' x 11” for the same $130 (which is about what the cedar would have cost). Sold!!! It arrived yesterday and set-up was a breeze, no hardware needed.

Scalping the grass down to the dirt.

A layer of cardboard, a layer of weed cloth, a layer of compost inside the raised bed, hay will surround it.

Well, I was going to lay out more cardboard and weed cloth and some of the hay today and get the onions in but it's still raining, albeit lightly, at noon. So, no outdoor work today. I do need to box up the magnolia leaves pieces and send them to the gallery for their March show but I also need to empty the wheelbarrow of dirt so the wheel, which has gone bad, can be removed and replaced and I do have three leftover tomato plants and a nice basil and empty pots in which all that can go so I'll probably go out to the barn in a little while and do that. Keeping my hands in the dirt is keeping me sane while the inmates are in charge of the asylum in Washington though I'm starting to feel a little niggling in my brain that is telling me I need to start on new models and get making stuff again.

One of last years projects except for the spirea which will get planted elsewhere.