New Mulch

Today we were able to pick up a yard and a half of shredded cedar mulch.  It seems likes it's the only thing available around here, and it was $30/yard.  The 1 1/2 yards filled the back of the pickup and we secured it with a tarp.  We should have put a tarp under it too as the hitch rails got packed with bark and it was a terrific job cleaning it out.

We first cut the red twig dogwood that Julie gave us, and got it planted, drilling the holes with the cordless drill and soil auger.  It went pretty fast and we put in about 40 sticks.  This bed got first dibs on the mulch.

Then we did the front beds near the stairs.

We used up the remainder on the daffodil bed by the driveway entrance.  A yard and a half looked like a huge amount but it went fast.  I don't know if we'll get more this summer or not, but I would have liked to have put it between the vegetable garden raised rows.

The watering system was next as we fine tuned the hoses and sprinklers.  

Hot!

It's 79º today and we consider that HOT, especially in May.  I planted some new blueberry bushes today, one Jersey and one Bluecrop.  Had to water everything, even my paper mulch that had tried and began to free itself from the dirt cover and blow around the yard!  I will be picking up a yard of bark mulch tomorrow.  I also potted up the Brussels Sprouts, cabbage, broccoli and raab.

 The herbs are still quite small.  We'll set up the grow lights in the downstairs bathroom but all the trays will go over to Julie's while we're at Jenny's graduation.  A couple of frosts are in the forecast next week but we're hoping it won't bother the timers of the watering system.

Richard and John hiked up to Golden Lake and wore crampons 2/3 of the way up to the frozen lake.

Mulching With Newspaper

Everyone has probably already done this, but it's a first for us.  I've been reading Ruth Stout's book, and listening to my friend rave about the method.  I've been saving our local paper all year, but had to go get more and still ran out.

This is the bed I was working on today, before and after the weeding last week.

The plan is to plant daisies in the location of that brown strip, with redtwig dogwood behind them.  Since the rototiller was handy I asked Richard to plow up that grass so I could get it smoothed out.  I put the wet  newspaper down in whole sections, overlapping the edges and then threw on some dirt to keep it in place while deciding on a more attractive mulch.

Koshka is checking out the new friable dirt!

The other job was in the curved beds at the bottom of the stairs.  The rocks were choked with weeds, grass and thistles so I dug them all free and weeded the bed.  It has not had mulch for years.  Bad decision. 

This bed was a real mess, with grass choked iris, and a few columbine.

Today's progress:

Soon, also,  I'll be working on lifting the iris and moving it to a sunnier location.  The iris were originally Richard's father's in Portland.

 I heard about vinegar as a weed killer and tried some, and the weeds turned brown within hours.  Therefore I ordered a 1 gallon pressure sprayer and brought home 3 gallons of vinegar!  I'll be working on the rest of the "driveway weeds" and we'll bring in another truckload of gravel.

Today we finished up transplanting the second row of raspberries.  Hopefully mulch is going to keep down the grass because it was an awful job to free the plants from the weed roots.  I took some pictures, finally.

 The first picture is from the deck looking west at the garden.  The north end is the new raspberry patch, the central front is previous garden rows with the former raspberry patch behind it.

The south plot was expanded wider last summer.  We can't till farther south because we need to drive the rv around the strawberry bed to get it turned around and backed into its garage.

South of that is the strawberry patch.

Small flower area at bottom of deck stairs.  Grass is beginning to green up but suffers from too much dog pee.

South end which is planted with 6 rows of potatoes this year.  The remaining two rows will be cabbage.

Old raspberry patch was choked with grass.

Near wheelbarrow is where we've been digging them out.

Front is previous garden rows, planted in peas, carrots, garlic and onions with lettuce still to be sown.

Back end is where we've removed raspberries and the rows in the front will be extended.

New raspberry patch.  This bed had potatoes in it last year, but this year we doubled its size, extending it to the north.

New raspberries, grass free!

Looking to the south with the remaining raspberries which will be dug out and transplanted in the fall.

Planting!

Hope I'm not too early but on Saturday, May 4th I planted peas (snap, snow, shelling), carrots, onion sets, bunching onions from seed, Walla Walla's from starts, and radishes.  Tomorrow I'll put up the row cover supports over the peas because we are bound to have more freezes.

Today I planted 6 rows of Russian fingerling potatoes.  Then I finished hacking the weeds/grass away from the flower bed border at the bottom of the deck stairs.  Must. get. gravel.

Richard began moving the raspberries but ran into root rot.  Vacating that center bed will give me an additional 600 sq feet for vegetables!  I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow.  The beds are weed free and look gorgeous!

Vegetable Gardening 2013

I'm going to attempt to keep track of the vegetable garden here--it's just too easy to forget how it happened!
Today I started my first seedlings, putting (Copenhagen Market) cabbage seeds in peat pellets.  In the afternoon I shopped for more seeds and then planted the rest of the brassicas, brussels, brocolli, raab, and cauliflower. Yesterday I planted the garlic out, which I'd forgotten to do last fall.  I've done this before and it still grew well, so no problem.

This is what it looked like outside last week, snow is gone, grass is starting to green up, daffodils partially in bloom, no leaves on trees.  Today the high will be 43º, 20% chance of snow. (It did snow in the afternoon).