April 8, 2010

Garden Picture Update

I took pictures of the garden today so here is a picture update on how things are doing. 


My cold frame closed for the night. I have tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers planted in it so I need to be sure I close it on cool nights. (30's. 40's) 










When it warms up be careful about keeping the glass or plastic on your cold frame. Today I put it on in the late afternoon and it warmed up 20 degrees in it in less than 2 hours. ( it was 60 and it warmed up to 80) One day I left the glass on and found it warmer than 120 degrees. Always keep a temperature gauge in your cold frame. It lets you know if it's getting too hot or too cold.  




I made a small speciality garden where I am growing Comfrey and I might grow early tomatoes in the empty lasagna I have there. I marked the beds 20 feet long and 30 inches long. (That makes it 50 square feet) Then I tilled the beds and put wood chips in the walkways. (Don't put wood chips around the plants, it takes up the nitrogen in the soil until it breaks down) 







This is a picture of Comfrey, a great mulch, compost activator and fertilizer.  






Below: This is 5 bales of hay that my mom bought for me. I will use this as mulch around my plants.


The person who brought me the hay didn't realize how wet my field can be under the dry surface. =P 











Another example of how wet and low my field is. 













The solution for having low land. Raised beds! They are wonderful. The small green plants you see in the picture is my experiment with planting under peat moss. I sprinkled radish seeds over the area and then covered them in a thin layer of peat moss. I watered them every day or two and they all came up very fast. It was easy and I didn't have to do any digging with a hoe. 

I mulched my kale and swis chard. It has been very hot lately and the hay will keep the soil cool for the kale. There are many benefits of hay, I will have an article on it later.




1 comment:

  1. I can't imagine how wonderful it must be to have 5 rolls of hay.
    The raised beds look good, maybe I should try this in my field, but I would have to have a fence put up, because of deer.
    Your garden looks very neat.
    Aunt B

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