spring planting | my90acres

We’ve had an absolutely gorgeous week this spring. Clear, sunny days, temps in the mid 70s. All the dogwoods, redbuds, and other spring flowers and bushes have been putting on a display. And the birds are making nests in every nook and cranny. I have been very busy outside preparing the garden.

I finished assembling the second raised bed kit. Then we prepared the ground for the beds. This is in the location of the former spring garden so the ground has been worked before. After tilling it to loosen the soil, we added peat, manure, and some topsoil. Beneath each mound, I added a layer of cardboard as I’ve heard that this keeps down the weeds. Then I shoveled on the dirt, added the raised bed frames, and leveled everything.

I couldn’t resist buying a few plants although it’s really too early here. We can expect to get a late frost as far as May 10^th. And have some years. But I went ahead and added some ground cloth and planted through them.

One raised bed will be dedicated to tomatoes and peppers. The second will have more variety with sugar peas, lettuces, spinach. Later beans, squash and whatever. I only bought a few tomatoes and herbs so far. I won’t fib and say this was easy. It was actually a lot of crawling around but now that it’s done, it looks pretty neat.

Although the tomatoes are a little closer than I would normally plant them, we’ll see if this system works better. It should be easier to maintain. I will buy some more tomatoes later this week. Still too early for peppers. And we set up the solar-powered motion detector lights which we’ve used in the past. This helps to keep some of the critters out of the vegetable patch.

Last year our garden was miserable due to a drought and other issues. But the year before we had produce in abundance. I was trying to remember which were our favorite tomatoes and remembered a posting that I made in August of 2021 where I made comparisons of the variety of tomatoes. If you’re just getting ready to plant, you may wish to check it out at this link.

Anyway, I’ve got a head start on this part of the garden but there’s plenty more to do. I don’t think a farmer’s work is ever done.

For more information about tomato varieties, check out this post. Tomatoes! Tomatoes! Tomatoes!