April Warming

It may be April, but it' hasn't felt like it. Dressed in a long sleeved shirt and jeans, I was sweating it up on the urban farm Saturday as I turned over the soil, mixed in the compost, and covered the whole thing with hay/mulch. I planted a few early season stuff like Romaine lettuce, red onions, and pea seeds (two varieties), all from Pemberton. I put up twine for the peas, and staked out where everything else will go. I can barely wait for the annual pilgrimage to Mahoney's so I can pick up the warm weather crops and get a-planting.

Garden without mulch


When I came to clean up the garden a few weeks back, I lined the sides of the garden with old & broken tomatoes stakes. It helps define the garden a bit better, and I'll buy some new stakes for the tomatoes. After reading through my Burpee book later that evening, I've decided to string additional 45 degree angle twine over the peas, as well as twine strung between the tomato stakes for extra vine support. That should eliminate the need of lots more stakes, those sicks aren't as cheap as one might hope!

New seedlings


One thing I realize I'm not doing is rotating my crops around the garden. I figure if I move the tomatoes closer to the path, I won't be able to see into the garden come July. I guess I could plant them all along the east side of my garden, but then I'll shade out my own crops 1/2 the time...what to do! My dad doesn't rotate his crops year to year, and all seems to go ok over there. At least on the right I have all new crops, the dill was moved to the left, maybe I'll move the peppers to the left too and the basil to the right. I'm not sure how important it is to rotate these crops vs the heavy feeders like tomatoes, but it must be better than no rotation at all.

Bad pic of self-sown cilantro, dill, and rocks!


Garden with mulch, seedlings and temporary stake placement