Garden preps and other musings

It's March and you know what that means - Spring is here - almost. I'm generally not an optimist so I do not get too excited but after today, one can hope. It was a beautiful day and I got to enjoy it immensely. After a visit to the doctor for a routine appointment, I came home and indulged myself. I decided it was time to mark the beds and get things moving.
So, after checking the measurements and verifying all was right, I roped off the front beds. It didn't take a lot of time but I wanted to be sure everything was aligned. My goal, after all, is to maximize the spaces I have. So here are the beds that I'm establishing. They run northish to southish. My yard, like most yards, does not run true north and south. 



This bed is 18" wide and 21' long. It will be the first year that I have gardened in this area so I will obviously have to amend the soil heavily this year. I have lots of compost but that will have to augmented with other materials. I don't look for this to be a big producing bed but with the right mix of amendments, it may be enough to get some production. Anything I do add will be certified organic. I generally look for the OMRI certification on anything I purchase.
The second bed shown below is 2.5' wide and 21' long. This area is a long existing plot of my garden. Naturally, it should be a productive plot but will need a treatment of compost and maybe another ingredient.


My third and fourth beds are a blend of two previous beds. They are 2.5" wide and 12' long. The third bed (on the right) is about 50% new area and 50% existing bed. The fourth bed is heavily an existing bed. In fact, I will be moving some of the dirt from it to bed 3. And again, bed 3 will need amendments and compost.



The fifth bed is about 18" wide and 21' long. It is also a new bed so I will follow the same protocols as to the other new beds. 


Having completed the outlining of the beds, I then cut the beds to fit the sizes of them and transferred the excess dirt to the beds. This was done to establish the walking paths between the various garden plots. Once I was finished with the edging of the beds, I raked each walk path. This was the final step to firm up the beds and walkways.

I think the garden is starting to come together. Shortly, I will have to work on the other two smaller plots on the other side of the main walkway and them run my hand tiller through the beds to get them ready for planting in early April. Much to do, so little time as usual.
I am always amazed by the rare things I find at stores I had no idea carried the items. For instance, I had no idea that TJ Maxx carried this



Or this



I did get this work light very cheap at Sears due to the store being closed. Sad end to an American icon. 



Well, that's all there is for now. It's time for me to get the seedlings started. I am excited to see if there is any difference in them by starting them in my greenhouse. And, as always, until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Back from vacation

Our family just finished a great vacation cruising on the Carnival Pride out of the Port of Baltimore.  I cannot say enough good things about our experience as it was fun and the crew was fantastic to say the least.
While I was on vacation, I had some time every morning to think before getting busy with the activities onboard and the ports of calls.  And it became clear to me that it is time to begin renovations to my garden.  I want to get more production and make it easier to maintain.  I have two uneven beds that are producing but I've had a feeling that I am not getting the maximum utility out the space I have available.
The first order of business will be to even out the beds.  As seen below, the right bed is shorter than the left bed.

This is from a different perspective.

I will shorten the left bed and stretch the right bed so they won't go beyond on the fence post.  I think it will give the beds symmetry and make working them easier.  I have hopes that it will allow me to use soaker hoses connected to my rain barrels next year.
I know this appears to give me less space for my plants but there is another area I can use that I presently am not.  Behind each bed is a walk way along the neighbors fence. 

I plan, at this time, to pull the pavers up behind each bed and run the bricks directly to the fence.  My initial calculations show that this will be a small net gain in space. 
Another idea I have is to widen the beds to perhaps 5 to 6 feet each.  I still have to do some calculations to see if that is both plausible and necessary.  After all, I can expand the garden to the whole area but the question remains, do I need that much space?  I am not totally convinced as of yet.