Time for planting has arrived! Since I haven't put in raised beds at my new home, I've been conditioning the soil every Spring. This is year 3. The soil is getting better, easier to turn with less clods of clay. But it still requires some compost addition. Since compost also provides good nutrients, I'm not complaining. :-)
I didn't start seeds indoors this year, so I opted for the e-z route and bought mostly starts, and some seeds that can be started outdoors, at Carpinito Brothers. Their prices are quite reasonable, and the plants I get there are good quality for the price.
Starts/plants:
- chives (pictured below)
- globe artichoke
- mustard greens
- swiss chard (bright lights)
- peas
- glenora grape in gallon container
- mesclun
- cilantro
- flat-leaf parsley
- zucchini
The chives are already harvestable in small quantities. So tempting!
I got some other seeds that I'll be sowing later in the season, such as beans (in a few weeks), and kale (towards the end of summer).
The peas are placed strategically along this trellis. Before long their wispy tendrils will be cranking up the posts, sending up shoots and eventually bearing delicious fresh pea pods. Yummm. The trellis was initially (mistakenly) bought for the rasberries that can be seen in the background to the left in the very first picture above.
For some reason I thought rasberries needed something to cling to, but they are doing just fine without a structure. I read somewhere recently that they actually like to be trained to arch down into the ground. I might try that this year.
Here is a close-up of new growth on the rasberries. I can't wait to enjoy their juicy berries later in the summer!
2 comments:
Hello, do you have an opinion on whether raised beds are better in our very wet climate? My new house has a huge backyard of mostly grass for now and I noticed it was extremely saturated during the spring. I had left some dahlia tubers in the ground (read that our climate is mild enough to not dig them up for winter) and they drowned. Because of this, I bought one cedar planter box to try this season and plan to probably build another or two. But I wonder if the pricey soil I put in the planter box will just get super soggy next winter and not useable in spring? Any suggestions?
Hi Elena, excellent question. I have seen that raised beds solve this problem nicely. Water always wants to find the lowest level. So by raising the beds up, you give your plants some breathing room. And while the soil you're putting in is costly, it will have better drainage, so it will not hold the water the way your yard does.
Also, when you add more raised beds, look for the place in your yard that is highest up. Depending on how much standing water there is, you might want deeper (thus higher up) raised beds, so that plants with deeper roots don't come in contact with standing water.
A friend of mine has a yard that is water-logged for much of the year, and another approach is to just go with it and find plants that thrive on wet soil. Blueberries, spiraea, dogwood, willow bushes, wild rose (rosa pisocarpa) all do well with wet feet.
Good luck! I'd love to know how your gardening goes. :-)
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