An Early Start in the Vegetable Garden 2012

We raise alpacas and they are little fertilizer factories.  I have been gathering up their poop and putting in the beds.  Their poop can be used almost immediately without needing it to compost.  I am topping off the boxes now and will work it in as I plant. 

I used to plant by the moon when I lived in MA but for some reason gave up that idea when I moved here.  Don’t know why because I had such success with it.  Well I am going to give it a try this year and see how it goes.  I live to experiment and this will be my experiment for this year.  If you have never done this method of planting it really is simple.  A Farmers Almanac is helpful but if you want to do a simpler method all you need to know  is that when the moon is full don’t plant and wait a few days after it starts to wan before you plant.  This is when you plant any root crops.  Once there is no moon again waits a few days after it starts to wax to plant crops that grow above ground. 

I planted my peas a few days after there was no moon and as you can see they are starting to grow.  I do hope to get a crop of peas but even if they fail I can till them in and they will fix nitrogen into the soil for my next crop.  I just planted beets after the full moon but they have not come up yet since it was just a few days ago.  I will update on their progress. 

Getting Close to a Finished, if that is possible, Vegetable Garden

Last year I worked on the pathways.  I wanted to be sure that I did not have to deal with any grass but also wanted to be able to walk through the garden without walking in mud after a rain storm or watering.  I do have a drip system which is the best way to water a vegetable garden in a drought.  I found the best weed barrier I could find that would have a very long life.  I decided to use the stuff nurseries use under their  plants.  It is heavy duty with a 25 year guarantee.                                                                                                                                                           You can see what the weed barrier looks like in this photo.  That is a bag of mulch in the foreground. Also is my little helper Chen Chen but she prefers Farmer Chen Chen when she is in the garden.  

It got so hot so fast last spring that I didn’t get finished with my pathways.    With such a nice mild winter I took advantage of this great weather and finished laying the weed barrier and the remainder of the mulch/bark.  I am waiting to find the next mother load of broken bags to finish it up.  In the mean time I am gathering up the rocks around here to place around the edge of the garden to keep the mulch in when we get those heavy rain storms.  I am also placing smaller rocks around the bases of the pomegranates and fig tree.   I am so happy to see the end of this project coming soon.         

        

In the Garden Again.

Since last week I have been working in the garden. I finally laid out the weed cloth in the pathways that didn't get finished last year. I put out the mulch I purchased last summer also but I am still short many bags. I will be haunting the home improvement stores for broken bags which you can get for a lot less. I am really happy with the work so far and think that kind of work is done now. Now I can concentrate on the garden boxes. I will be out cleaning up all the piles of alpaca poop to add into my garden beds.
I planted peas last week and they are popping up. Today I planted beets and Bob and I planted onions. I know it is late for the onions but that should be ok. The soil is still cool almost cold. We got more rain last night and may get more this weekend which is good for planting.
I am trying a planting method I used years ago when I lived in MA. I was reminded of it by someone a few weeks ago and just wonder if it will work for me again.
I will post some photos of the garden soon. Loving this weather!
Li