The Excitement is Building

The old garden site has been leveled and weeded, and the first two 8.5 x 3 foot metal beds have been placed there.  They are oriented north-south, and we put half inch hardware cloth under them to keep moles and voles out.  We know we have either or both because we find the tunnels when we dig.  The beds are 15 inches high.

Two additional beds have been set down approximately where they will end up, so that we have an idea of the layout.  We need to mow the grass as short as possible and put down both hardware cloth and a layer of cardboard under the beds.  The latter will take care of the grass.  I asked on the Pacific Northwest Gardeners group on Facebook, and folks had seen lawn grass grow up through 2 feet of raised bed, and regretted not putting down cardboard first.  OK!  

The final pair of beds are not yet built, but will go in the foreground of the picture above, in line with the beds on the dirt.  The edge of one bed will be about 6 inches onto the dirt on the line where the dirt stops and the lawn begins.  Remember too that the 4-foot space between pairs of beds will be occupied by a cattle panel trellis that arches from one side to the other.  The trellises will probably be built after we fill the beds, as they would be in the way of filling them.

Our target date for having the beds filled with soil and ready to plant is mid-May. We should be able to manage that.  Drip irrigation etc will take a bit longer, but we are planning what is needed and will be trenching for it before we lay down cardboard and wood chips on the paths between garden beds.  I will miss out on some spring crops, but should still be able to sow beets, chard, carrots, maybe some late peas, more spinach, and I have a set of onion starts that may last until I can get them into the beds.

Meanwhile, my six tomato seedlings continued to grow like crazy under the LED grow lights.  They were shading out the eggplants and peppers, so they had to be up-potted to gallon nursery pots and put on a new shelf.  I used only half of the second pack of lights, just 3 of them, in the hopes that it will slow down their growth until it's safe to put them out in our cheezy prefab plastic-over-metal-shelves greenhouse.  The seedling's roots were just reaching the bottom of the 4-inch white plastic pots, so I repotted them at just the right time!

The eggplants and peppers are much happier without their pushy tomato neighbors.  I plan to up-pot these to saved 16oz yogurt and cottage cheese containers soon, once I have time to drill the drainage holes into the containers.  I'm fertilizing both sets of seedlings weekly with fish emulsion (half a tsp in a half gallon of water) and they are loving it.

Outside in the white planters, spinach, peas, and baby bok choy are coming up!  Look closely and you can see the Purple Lady bok choy along side the Green Fortune ones.  No sign yet of my potatoes or gladiolas, but I'm sure they're busy down there under the soil.

Super excited by the garden buildout and things growing!  I can hardly wait to get to the next stage!