beginning Jackson garden spring 2010...
this year seemed to have so many open ended questions as to the details of my garden. more so than other years for some reason. my kind neighbor offered to use his CAT to turn the dirt over as opposed to me having to till it all by hand. instead of keeping the rows in tact, i told him to blend them together as one and i would sort them out later. this led to a gardener's existential conundrum. to raise or not to raise? that was the question. typical french potagers(see past "potager" blog) seemed to maximize the most garden room as possible, thereby filling beds with eye-catching vegetables blending into one-another. after all, one of the most sucessful gardeners that i have ever known, Joel Meckstroth, (ok, he is my dad, but that doesn't mean I am biased) has a plot of earth, level with the ground around it and it is a very productive garden.... alas, i decided to keep the raised beds all one, and will let the garden flow into itself. whatever that means, we will see come August.
this year seemed to have so many open ended questions as to the details of my garden. more so than other years for some reason. my kind neighbor offered to use his CAT to turn the dirt over as opposed to me having to till it all by hand. instead of keeping the rows in tact, i told him to blend them together as one and i would sort them out later. this led to a gardener's existential conundrum. to raise or not to raise? that was the question. typical french potagers(see past "potager" blog) seemed to maximize the most garden room as possible, thereby filling beds with eye-catching vegetables blending into one-another. after all, one of the most sucessful gardeners that i have ever known, Joel Meckstroth, (ok, he is my dad, but that doesn't mean I am biased) has a plot of earth, level with the ground around it and it is a very productive garden.... alas, i decided to keep the raised beds all one, and will let the garden flow into itself. whatever that means, we will see come August. i have also tried a new idea (new to me, not to experienced gardeners out there) and that is "Weed Block mulch paper". it comes in rolls and is eco-friendly, recylcled and biodegradeable... it keeps the weeds down, and hopefully might even warm the soil a bit. (what's the difference between this and newspaper, you ask? nothing, i came to find out as the paper bag-like tarp eventually melted in the rain, as newspaper does also. i was just a sucker. after all, newspaper is free. this special mulch paper had an extra special price tag.)
here is how it looked on a patch on my garden(below):
another pressing question was how, oh how, do i keep the stinkin (literally) chickens out of my garden?! most gardeners that i have spoke to that also raised hens have told me it is impossible to simply "tell them" to stay out. last year i fought and fought with them, looking like a mad housewife running out in my bathrobe with a broom yelling "shoo! shoo! GET OUT OF MY GARDEN!" "STOP EATING MY SQUASH BLOSSOMS!" ok. so maybe i wasn't in my bathrobe or using a broom, but i thought that visual picture conjured up the image of how i felt when i was doing said action. this spring was no different. yesterday i was able to steal one hour of gardening time while the kids were asleep and i could lay down my mulch paper and begin plotting. i gingerly tucked the cabbage and broccoli starts into carefully cut holes in the paper and eased them into the soil. here's what the chickens thought of that after i left them alone with my hard work:
with a deep and vindictive sigh, i went back out and replanted my (severely chewn) broccoli and cabbage, and added more paper mulch to specific areas. i found it very hard to plant seedlings in it, as i cut long rectangular rows out of the paper, wondering if the cuts and holes in the mulch with render it useless in the long run. but, i made the investment, i will follow it through to the end at least to say "been there, done that." the tiny lettuce seeds were of especially high concern as those little guys drifted every which way along my line of dirt under the paper... also, as i plugged the peas into their little slots, i hoped they could find their way up through the punctures to the top when they plan to sprout. only time will tell. maybe i will have to replant it all again in a few weeks anyway. very eeyore like thinking on my part, i know.
on the bright side, i feel such a sense of accomplishment (by my own standards, i know most everyone else is leaps and bounds further along than i am) in just getting a few seeds/starts in the ground. they are as follows:
walla walla sweet onion starts
cabbage and broccoli starts (whats left of them, at least
Danvers Carrots (they were all out of Scarlet Nantes)
Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage
I have much more seeds to set out, but there's always tomorrow. does anyone know when you can set out tomato starts in the Northwest? i invested in a fun selection of heirloom tomatoes and want to make sure i give them what they want- so as not to make them wither or get blight. 
here's the nonfinal, final project from today: 
here's the nonfinal, final project from today: 
P.S. other little soil preps I did were: soil pH test kit. apparently my soil is "just right". couldda fooled me. (i also tested the P-N-P:phos.,nitrogen, and potash, and i didn't understand the color coded results, so who cares) i added two bags of an organic vegetable fertilizer and 3 big bags of Olympic Fish Compost- grown locally! oh, and don't forget the random chicken droppings- usually you are supposed to age the potent stuff so it doesn't burn your crops, but i am not about to go and pick out every little pile left by Blondie, Dusty, Mary, Gidget or Diana. (there are 2 other hens, but they never got names- they're boring)
sorry for such a long and uninformative blog- i am sure you were bored a long time ago and never made it to this sentence. :)
