Spring prepping has begun....

After a cold beginning, the temps rose quite rapidly yesterday once the sun rose into the beautiful blue sky. That's been a rare occurence around here lately. And, wanting to take advantage of this event, I decided to go out and get a head start on the many things I need to do. It will be time to start planting soon enough and one cannot waste a day like this.

So, my first decision was to move my veritical support poles to accomodate the cucumbers and tomatoes. I will once again employ the spring loaded string system I used last year. I had to move the poles about a foot in order to get them centrally located so I can plant a row of cukes and maters alternately down the row. This will allow me to use the rest of the bed for other plants. Haven't quite decided but I am thinking in terms of cooler weather crops. Maybe even carrots. I am hoping this will create a wall of green. I think it would look beautiful. Here are a couple pics of the supports.

The holes were 2 feet deep as they will need to carry a lot of weight. I can only hope it will work as envisioned.
After setting the poles in place, I decided to begin the process of cutting down the winter rye down so it can begin to break down into the soil. I used a grass trimmer to do this as I only wanted to cut the rye halfway down. It didn't take long and wow, the scent of freshly cut grass permeated the whole garden and beyond. I can probably say I was the first to cut grass in my community. My neighbors might say something different. It was a really nice scent that furthered my desire for spring to pop.
Here is a before and after comparison.


Again, I did not want to cut it down to the soil as that would result in both bleaching and a runoff (during rains) of the nutrients out of the soil. I want to feed it a little at a time. I will probably turn the rye totally under towards the third week of March. There are many ways to use rye as some gardeners/farmers cut the rye and use it as composting materials. Others let it decompose where it lays. Farmers, from what I can tell, cut the rye and leave the cuttings in place and allow the roots to breakdown in the ground. I use a spade or fork to just dig them up but not move them. I just lift up a little to allow air in to dry the roots. It seems to work so I will probably do that this year.
After doing these tasks, I cleaned up the garden area as winter has taken its' usual toll. I worked in the greenhouse for a bit to just get it ready for the seedlings which will need to be transferred to it in the coming weeks. I did check on my water container since it rained buckets over the weekend clear into Monday morning. Seems it was heavier than I thought.

This is about 250 gallons of water. I can't remember having this good of a supply so early in the year. Considering that on February 26th, I had maybe, 90 gallons, this storm gave me about 150-160 gallons. That's a ton of water. I use the water mostly for the garden. But, I have been known to bucket water to clean our cars. It's chemical free so it has to be better than water from the faucet. The only issue is if it gets horribly warm, algae growths occur. I use a shock for pools which burns off in 1-3 days after application. I use the faucet when that occurs.
Well, that's about all I have at this time. Still much to do and I will be reporting on the seedlings that are growing in my basement in a subsequent post. I hope you are all getting back into the rythm of Spring. I think we all need it after everything that has happened. Nothing like working with plants and dirt to connect you to the earth. So, until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!