Second Seeds

Got the garden mapped out tonight, complete with the requisite scribbles and last minute changes:

Sam is working on translating this map to something more legible, and to that end is trying out some Garden Planner software he just downloaded. For now, we're following our maps and trying to be organized:

We spent some time admiring the box of seeds that arrived from Seed Savers Exchange,

sorted them out into piles of "plant as seeds now," "plant in pots first," "plant as seeds in May," and "we got a little carried away."

Finally we headed outside. The weather was beautiful all day, but clouds rolled in this evening. The rain stayed over the hills to the east, but the wind picked up a few times, and we might just find some lettuce growing across the yard as a result!

We got the first two beds raked to the half-way point. Each of the six main beds is 5' wide and 88' long, which seemed just fine when we were tilling it with the tractor. Raking by hand is a whole 'nother story, even just to turn the loose soil!

Sam put in the Vermont Cranberry Beans today. We might have jumped the gun on those a little - we got several conflicting reports on when to put in beans - but we'll see. We have about six varieties of drying beans, and even though we only used half the Cranberries we WAY overplanted the rows (including a few spillage oopsies), so if they don't come up - or only partially do - we can reseed in May.

    Pretty red beans!














While Sam was preparing the bean beds, I put in the Blue Pod Peas and SSE's Lettuce Mix in bed #6 (closest to the house). This bed will be the salsa garden at the other end when the tomatoes and peppers go in as seedlings.  The peas cover about 1/3 the length of the row on the south side, with the lettuce beside them on the north. We plan to build trellises for the peas so they can shade the lettuce as summer comes on.

While we were planting, little Miss K fed the chickens with her grandma: