Last Sunday Dave and I worked all day putting on the new garden. First we went to Home Depot and bought a small electric tiller/cultivator. What a great idea that was! Dave was planning to use a pick to till up the soil but the dirt there was so dry and compacted that he would probably have injured himself, or else would have stopped and I wouldn't have a garden. So, he first removed a couple of dead grape vines and moved the support for the wires in to clear the space for the garden. Then, using his handy-dandy new toy he did the first tilling of the soil. I then spread three bags of compost (along with some organic vegetable garden fertilizer) and we realized that we needed more. So, off to the nursery for three more bags of compost. We tilled in the first three bags, spread out the other three bags, then tilled that in, so the garden got "worked" three times total which was probably ideal. Then, I planned the rows of beets, planted them (all the beet seeds fit perfectly - it was pure luck) and then set up the watering. We decided that trailing a soaker hose in between the rows would do the trick so that's what we have out there.
Adjacent to the beet garden I planted a pumpkin patch of small sugar pumpkins. Dave loves pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup so we should be all set come October, if all goes well.
So, now it's Saturday, and yesterday I saw the first sprouting of the beets, and today saw the first of the pumpkins. So far, so good!
To the right is a photo of the garden right after planting it and setting up the watering system. The beets are in the foreground while the pumpkin patch is in the circular area further back.
Now I just have to figure out how to get a bigger garden patch... okra, potatoes, squash, asparagus, hmmm...
Adjacent to the beet garden I planted a pumpkin patch of small sugar pumpkins. Dave loves pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup so we should be all set come October, if all goes well.
