Here's this year's layout (plant sizes and numbers are not actual!):
Last year, I pretty well neglected the garden as far as much needed improvements were concerned, so this year, I had lots to do. The east end sloped away so much that my mulch paths were all but washed away, so I built it up to a gentle slope and placed an edging wall at the most severe section. Now, unless we get a gully washer (which is not unheard of), the path should remain in place. And, just maybe, if the path remains in place, I won't have to remulch it so often.
slope remediation, mulch paths marked
I also dug a shallow trench in portions of the path at the higher side of the garden to help keep the mulch in place, and my theory is that it will also act as a little irrigation ditch to keep more water available on that side. I planted the lower, outer ring with short rows perpendicular to the arc, which will fight the whole purpose of rain water direction and erosion, but I made shallow depressions of the planting rows, so hopefully that will help to mitigate that particular faux pas. We shall see.
I've left large spaces between the rows so I can make staggered plantings two weeks after these come up, and have a continuing harvest of young greens. I always think I'll do that and never do, so maybe this time, with orderly rows instead of scatter planting, I'll get the job done.
Planted and eagerly awaited are: peas, mixed lettuces, arugula, celery, tatsoi, and carrots.
I plant about 3x as densely as is called for on packaging (except for carrots, which I tend to overplant every time). The package recommendations are for gardens that get a tiller run down between rows and that have more conventionally placed and spaced rows than mine. Even if you have that type of garden, you can easily get away with planting twice as densely as recommended. Don't be afraid - pack 'em in! You'll get a good crop, and fewer weeds.
peas ready to be covered
My plan was to leave the path mulching until after all the rain we were supposed to be getting. Looks like that wasn't necessary, but I wouldn't have gotten as much done on the rest of the garden if I'd stopped to mulch paths.
Unfortunately, since the winter was cold and the spring quite chilly, there hasn't been any grass to mow for mulching the planted areas, and I couldn't readily find a substitute. I've tried using dried cypress needles in the past, but they just blow away. I'll have to remember to save this fall's grass clippings in case the same thing happens next year.
I don't know how many cart-loads of composted soil I put on the east end beds, but I whittled down my compost hill quite a lot doing it. That much shoveling ought to whittle down my waist, too, but it never does.
When I've depleted that compost hill, I'll probably consider my garden sufficiently built up with good soil. Since I rotate types of plants amongst beds, I don't till, and I don't add chemicals, after that, I'll probably just spread a little composted manure around from time to time.
Last fall, we had a dead tree and two ancient huge old tree stumps removed and shredded. The dead tree didn't shred into small enough pieces to use as a mulch (maybe the tree trimmers didn't have the proper equipment?), but the old, rotted tree stumps ground into something more like compost than mulch, so I used some of that to build up the beds where the onions and the okra will go. My theory is that it will improve the soil drainage as it works into the soil. The soil in the garden actually drains well as it is, but over the years, it can't hurt to have it amended. I hope there's nothing in that compost that's inhibiting to the growth of the plants. I'm all about experimenting, but perhaps I shouldn't have covered the entire beds, just in case.
rotted tree compost
Another of my theories is that if I leave the woody stumps of larger plants like okra, basil and peppers in the ground all winter, some of the fine roots will rot, feeding the soil, and when I pull them out of the ground in the spring, it will act to loosen up the soil as well. I believe it, so it must be true.
pepper stumps
My little flower seedlings are holding their own, and if the sun comes out again, they may even get large enough to be potted up to bigger containers. They need to get cracking, because I've just sown my tomato and herb packs, which will be needing the space.
All that shoveling and moving soil yesterday might have been tiring work, but the arrival of four new rose bushes just before noon kept me going, as I was excited to get them planted. I've never planted bare root roses before, so I hope I've done everything properly for them. Where I originally planned a rose garden for five bushes (one new one per year), after two years, I now have nine! No space for herbs that I originally intended to plant there as well, but there's room for a few lavender and perovskia, maybe a veronica or salvia. They'll look much prettier with the roses than other herbs, anyway.
I also have three more roses picked out for next year if I've gotten these four going well. I have a feeling that I'll be creating another rose bed in a couple of years. Either that, or I'll have to quit looking at rose catalogs.
The plants that arrived look nice and robust - good strong canes and lots of roots. I ordered them from Palatine Roses near the Canadian Niagra Falls after reading several comments that people were happy with that company. I'm very pleased and expect I'll get all my roses from them in the future if these do as well as they seem prepared to do.
Hint: If you order from Palatine (or anywhere outside the US, for that matter), and you give them permission to withdraw money from your bank account, be prepared to tell your bank you're going to do it. I always forget things like that. It's only a slight embarrassment when ordering and the company tells you that your bank rejected payment, but when traveling, it can put a real damper on things - especially if it's a Sunday.
The plants took three days from shipping to arrive by UPS, and this is how they came out of the box, bundled and marked, and encased in heavy-weight plastic:
one luxurious plant ready to go into a long soaking bath
holes dug, ready for roses
leveling the plant to the right depth
Hopefully, the roses I planted last year survived the winter. I couldn't decide how to winterize them since the ground didn't freeze until late, but there were cold winds all along, and no rain. I finally settled on watering them a couple of times and erecting tomato cages around them filled with fallen maple leaves. (NB: Nowhere is this a recommendation for overwintering roses.)
The little 'Julia Child' bush next to the house made it, but nothing in the garden rose bed has sprouted new growth yet. Fingers crossed. I was disappointed in the growth of the two David Austin roses I got last year from a local nursery - they're too thin-caned and floppy. And although 'Pat Austin' is a gorgeous color, 'Charles Darwin' was also a disappointment in that regard. If they didn't make it, I won't be terribly unhappy - more room for new ones when they come out. (In fact, Charlie D will come out anyway and go on the road bank if it doesn't perform any better in its second year than it did in its first.) But I will be very disappointed if 'Shazam!' didn't make it, and I really don't want to replace more than one or two, because they're not cheap.
Yes, some day I want to get rid of all that crab grass in front of the garden and seed it with a nice turf that greens up when the other grass does. That, however, is a larger challenge than I'm up to at the moment.
Happy spring, everybody.
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