Tilling and First Plantings

It was a big weekend for the garden.  Last week my manure supplier and I connected.  I loaded the Pathfinder with as much horse poop as I could without the springs riding on the axle.  Jacob helped wheelbarrow it to the garden once I got home.  I also put one load of very fresh stuff into the compost.

I tilled once last Sunday, mixing in compost, granulated limestone, and peat moss.  The second pass was yesterday, working in the manure.  Today was the final till for half the garden.  I'll hit the other half next weekend.  Tilling was a big deal the past two years, but this year it was drama-free.  It took a little while to get the tiller started the first time this season, but once fresh gas was flowing through it, it did great.  It takes about an hour to till the garden once.  This afternoon I made seed beds...which is new for me.  The past two years, I would till, rake, and then cut rows a foot apart with a hoe.  However, walking between the rows compacts the soil, and I wanted to try out planting denser than my foot-spaced rows.

So, I dug trenches every 4 feet, piling the soil from the trench onto the bed to the right of the trench.  Then I carefully raked the surface of the bed to flatten it, bust up dirt clods, and remove crabgrass roots.  I divided each bed into 4 rectangles and planted one type of seed into each rectangle.  I used a broom handle to make furrows on the top of the seed bed, spaced only as far apart as the seed packet says the final plants should be...this winds up being about 6 inches at most, often closer depending on the plant.  Today I was able to get radishes, lettuce, spinach, beets, green onions, mustard greens, turnips, and carrots in the ground.  These are all cold-tolerant and can be planted two or three weeks prior to the last expected frost date.

I'm pleased I got seeds in the garden this weekend.  I'd planned on waiting a week, but after going through my seeds yesterday, it was clear that I had plenty of frost-hardy seeds to get in the ground.  We had great weather for it, too - I took that as a sign.