Big Day

Today turned into a tiring but very productive day in the East of Eden garden.   Checked the forecast last night and they were predicting rain showers in the morning, but we rose to sun, mild temps, and very little wind.  This held up throughout the day, and between 8 am and 3 pm we got the rest of the planting and transplanting done.  June  1 is a little later than most years, but 2013 hasn't been most years.  

Far right-Asian radish; center-conventional radish; left-bibb lettuce

We are getting close to our first harvestable item--radishes planted April 27.    I didn't get very good germination on the lettuces due to old  seed, so I had to replant (areas that appear empty).  Hard to see, but I also have an onion or two mixed in there.

As I mentioned in the last post, we are using a new method this year involving wood chips over news paper to eliminate most weeding and retain moisture.   There is a bit of up front work, but we should more than make up for it by having less maintenance through out the season.   It also allows me to plant "no till", I don't turn the soil or rototill except for the little area where I plant; the rest of the garden is covered with a few layers of wet newspaper and topped with 3-4 inches of woodchip mulch we get for free a the city composting facility.

Peppers, kohlrabi, and cabbage transplanted today

Tomatoes transplanted last Saturday

So far we are  very pleased with the system.  The plan is to  extend this to the most of the garden, but we are only about half done.   We like it because it uses mostly free stuff--newspaper and mulch.  The proof is in the pudding, so if we save hours and hours weeding and watering--should be a good deal.   Next year should be a test too, as we see how we like planting into it.  In theory the wood chips should decay providing fertile soil, and over time we expect to keep adding more chips to the top.  It is also a nice surface to walk on--no mud, etc.