Garden Expansion

Until today, the only bed in the garden that has been prepared was the garlic bed.  I had hoped to have at least half of the garden beds turned over before the weather turned too cold.  In the last week we have had a bit of a cold snap.  Nights have gotten well below freezing in the last week, though day time temps were mild in the 50's.  We did have a fair amount of rain a couple nights ago as well.  Today conditions seemed favorable for a little more soil work, and I hope that holds true for tomorrow as well.  The ground isn't frozen yet, but if we have more nights below 20 I'm sure it won't be long before it is.

I started by getting a few more pieces of rebar to mark the corners of the beds.  I believe this bed is going to be used for spring potatoes so I will probably set up a hoop house over it to help them get an early start.  I have limited experience with season extenders, but I have found that hoophouses do a really good job of protecting fragile plants during the uncertain seasons of spring and fall.  The hoophouses I make are what I call the poor man's hoop house.  I can make one for about $30.  I use six pieces of rebar, three 1/2inch PVC plastic pipes, and a 25 x 10 ft clear painters tarp.  I find these items are the perfect size to cover my typical 3 x 10 ft beds.  I generally use large rocks or straw bales to hold down the edges of the plastic.

After I outlined the bed with twine, I began the tedious process of turning the soil.  Not surprisingly, this bed was also full of good sized stones which made hand digging with the shovel a great workout.

When I was done, I leveled the bed with the flat rake, then spread two bags of mushroom compost over the bed.  One final turning of the soil with the shovel and a new bed is now ready for planting in spring.  I covered this bed with straw to help reduce soil and moisture loss over the winter as well as to add organic matter to the bed.  Hopefully the extra insulation of the straw will help make the soil soft and workable in the early spring.

The third bed that I turned over was just as tedious as the first two.  I will be happy next year that I won't have to do rock removal before planting!  A friend of mine also generously donated a large back of leaves from their yard.  I dumped a three inch layer over this bed, then covered that with two more bags of mushroom compost.  

Finally I covered the whole thing with straw.  This is probably going to be one of the better producing beds next year if I had to guess.  Gotta love free leaves!