Monday, February 18, 2019

Garden 2019: Where We Are in Mid-February


Here's how the garden stands now, I'm ready for a delivery of garden soil to top off the beds and then a load of crushed limestone to finish off the section closest to the house. February isn't exactly the prettiest garden month.

I plan to change to no-till gardening, a way of gardening that leaves the soil structure undisturbed but takes some planning and gathering of supplies. I'll be talking a lot more about this as the season goes on but basically digging in the soil disturbs the complex web of animals and microorganisms that make up healthy soil. (Dust Bowl anyone?) No-till gardening also known as lasagna gardening is a way of recycling, composting, and creating a healthy planting medium all one place. Yes, please. Sign me up for anything that saves me time and trips to the recycling center.

With all this in mind, February has been spent laying out beds and paths and cleaning up excess garden supplies, old fencing, and broken or rotten stakes and timbers. See the last post. I also thinned out some of the blueberries and created a blueberry hedge along the edge of the garden extending past the beehives. I'm trying to make it a bit safer for my husband to cut near the hives as well as define the garden and create a sense of mystery about what lies beyond what you can see.

I pruned all the roses and spent a lot of time leaning on my pitchfork dreaming of what it will all look like in June while a frigid wind whipped around me but feeling intensely joyful.

Read about the scientific reason gardening makes you happy. 

Here's where we are right now:  I'm still collecting boxes and newspapers, and I need to order 2 more tons of crushed limestone and 2 yards of compost. Only after that will I be ready for planting anything. The frost date here is April 15th but my goal to have all of the pre-planting work done is March 20th, the first day of spring.

In the next post, we'll cover garden design and finding your gardening style. Meanwhile here are pictures of how the garden looks right now. 







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