March 20, 2010 First Day of Spring!

First day of Spring and this weekend couldn't be finer. Sunny and in the 70's, all that snow is starting to feel like distant memory!

The lettuce and the scallions are almost ready to get into the ground.  I just want to make sure the soil doesn't need any last minute adjustments!  I even had a lady bug pose in this shot, I hope they stick around during the summer!

I soaked the peas for a few hours and then sowed them in peat pots.  I read that peas don't really transfer very well, but I had no problem last year using the same method.  I'm shooting for about 30 pea plants, which is about 10 more than I originally planned for.  I'm going to test out the inter-planting of the peas and beans along part of the plot.  The idea is to plant the peas now, and then the bean next to them in the coming weeks.  By the time the peas are waning, the beans should be flourishing.  There should be enough of each planted separately that if this goes doesn't work that there won't be much of a loss.

Since I won't be able to till the whole garden today I decided to target the area that I am going to plant first.  I dug up the area around the trellis about a foot or so down and mixed up the dirt pretty good.  This was the area that last year didn't get roto-tilled, and it shows.  The soil here was especially clayey and was compacted but after some time began to look a little better.  If I wasn't just renting or knew that I'd be working this spot for four or five years I would get a load of compost delivered and really make this soil great. But it seems to be a pretty large expense with that uncertainty.   

I've decided to test the soil this year.  I chose four spots: 1. Around the tomatoes, 2. At the Peppers, 3. Around the lettuce/beans, and 4 near the Zucchini.  The test kit I purchased for about $17 has a separate test for pH, Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus.  I'm curious to see how it come up (I'll post the results some point soon).

The trellis is now in good shape with the extra fence post in place.  It' much more stable and really wasn't a lot of work to fix.  I was expecting it to be a pain to line up properly and get it all attached.  It's all set now for the peas!