March Photo Record #1

This is the exterior of the first raised bed with low tunnel as it was set up last weekend. This is assembled from 4 hoops of 1/2" grey conduit draped with 6 mil plastic.  Because of my troubles with gusting wind, I have clamped the plastic to the top of the raised bed using 2 x 6s and one in-elegant 4x4.

In the background, you can see another bed covered with a brown plastic tarp, weighed down with planting containers and concrete blocks.  That will be part of this month's project.

On the right is a look at the interior.  You can see the conduit hoops (used because they are UV resistant) set into 1" pvc that has been fastened to the raised bed frame.

This bed has been planted for about a week.  Kale is in the foreground, with chard in the middle and butter crunch lettuce at the far end.  I watered it about 4 days ago but you can see that the soil is still darkened.  The plastic creates a microclimate that conserves moisture, and condensation forms on the inside of the plastic.

With cool days as we have in March, I won't need to water much for the next several weeks.

I amended the soil with compost and turned under the leaf mulch that I covered the bed with last November.  When planting, I added Espoma Plant-tone organic fertilizer.












Below is a closer view of the bed

Leafy bed is planted

Just a post to confirm that the Kale and Chard have been planted in the upper bed.  The challenge on the February garden schedule was to get the first bed in by the end of February.  With an off-the-record midnight planting session, I can confirm that this goal was met.

Kale lists itself as 45 days to maturity so I can begin harvesting leaves in the middle of April.  Chard and Buttercrunch lettuce are both listed as 55-60 days to maturity, so they will be ready at the end of April.  Both of these should be picked young, starting with the outer leaves.

The high temperature today was in the low 70s, although at 6 am this morning, I was scraping frost off my windshield as I left the house.  The new seedlings are under plastic so they should be fine.  In fact, the lettuce that I transplanted a few days ago is standing up straight.  So any doubts that I may have had that February was too early for cool season crops have certainly been put to bed, so to speak.

So now I have the second and third beds to plant if I wish. I am following the garden layout I detailed here.   I don't have to do any more than one, but they are sitting there fallow if I am so inclined.

Markers February 2016

The state of the mountain:
The upper bed has been prepared and has been covered with a tarp for the last 6 weeks.  The lower two beds have also been covered with tarps for 6 weeks, but the beds beneath them have been too wet to work.

This past week I put up the hoops  (8' grey electrical conduit) and covered them with plastic to further seal out the moisture.  The rainy weather has been constant for at least the last week, and it snowed on the 15th (last Monday)  so the pattern of having the most miserable weather in February has been holding constant.

However, I have swiss chard seedlings started (Bright Lights) and ready to plant.  At the Walmart garden center I found 9-cell packs of Kale and Butter Crunch Lettuce.  Both of these are ready to plant in that upper bed, which is scheduled to be the Leaf bed this year.

I wish the spinach or bok choy seeds had come up by now, but neither has done anything.

The middle bed is too low, and is inundated with ground water.  We need to create a proper raised bed in that location to help the drainage situation.

I need to get large flat pavers to hold down the ends of the plastic row covers, and 2x6s for the sides.