More plantings and a New Coldframe!

The 3 Guys Who Built the Community Garden Beds

It's hard gardening and working full time. But it's also a wonderful release from the stresses of a full time job. The past month has been a very busy month. I have tilled one garden, composted it, and planted cool season crops. Once they came up I planted a second planting. So far I've got an initial planting of peas (shell and snap), radishes, beets, carrots, spinach, swiss chard, lettuce, parsley, cilantro, and chamomile. Second planting was of spinach, radishes, lettuces, beets, and carrots. I also planted dill and sage.

Compost and mulch have been delivered and some of it used already. And on top of all that we've got the town Community Garden built and 1 bed built and delivered to the school I teach at. Kids have already begun seeds for a "Pizza Garden". To get the community garden up and running we had a work day building beds. The town prepared the land, picked up and delivered the beds, laid the weed cloth, set the beds, filled the beds with loam, and spread chips between the beds!! It's totally amazing! Now it's time to get the word out and get folks to commit to gardening in the beds. Fliers will go up around town and the local paper will be called.

Here's a picture of the town Community Garden:


Mother's Day brought a nice surprise. My husband made me a cold frame for my home garden. And the best part was that it was almost totally made from reclaimed materials. Ger got the 2X4's from the local transfer station and all hardware and paint from around the house. It's great! I put some tomato seedlings in and planted seeds of cucumbers, nasturtiums, basil, and calendula...just to see how it goes. It's an experiment for me. I will have fun playing with this. Here's a photo of my new cold frame:



Dandelions were in full bloom last weekend and I wanted to plant potatoes but the wheel of the rototiller was broken. I haven't tilled with a rototiller in years; I've hand turned the soil with a pitch fork. But this year I've decided to redo the garden layouts and figured using the tiller would make that work much easier. I didn't get to planting the potatoes this weekend either and I cut the potatoes last night. So I'm worried about getting them into the ground.

I spent the whole day today transplanting in the perennial garden. I spent all last weekend doing that as well. It looks better. Not so crowded. I also took all the medicinal herbs out and put them in another bed just for them. They are too large for this garden and their looks just don't go with what I have here. Today was in the 40's, so it was a bit chilly! Hopefully I'll get the potatoes in soon.