In the Garden

 This spring my son came with his small tractor to till the back lot while the fence to the S is open. While I prefer no-dig methods, and minimal soil disturbance, Mary wanted the lot evened out. Garden shed, greenhouse, artichoke and Rosemary - and on the right, the row of blueberries. 

Freshly Tilled Garden

I'd already put together several garden beds, and Mary helped me assemble another. Two were in the garden with chard and perennial kale - so I moved those plants out weeks before Josh came to till.

Two beds with branches and straw

Ideally, I'd cover the whole back with tarps and cardboard ... I had saved enough cardboard to cover the bottom of each bed.  Matt took out the grape in back, and saved the branches for my beds. 

The black bag has goat bedding from Michael's house - two bags was enough for  a good layer in 1 1/2 beds. I harvested some of our compost for another layer. The mound of our native dirt to the left of the back bed it's loose enough to dig and add for the next layer. 

I got a couple of bags of Teufel compost for the top layer - forest products and manure - ok for organic amendments.

Bed 1 with self seeded Chard

I dug up several chard plants for the garden next to my house, and the chard happily self seeded throughout the plot! This spot is next to the old bed, and had a nice concentration of them.  Adding water and compost perked them up - and they're pretty drought tolerant. 

Bed number 2 - tomatoes, basil, seeds

I sowed a bunch of seeds in starting trays, and laid the beds out in 1' squares - the cardboard is over carrots, which germinate better in the dark.

It's been over 90° this week, so I've mulched, and cover the beds while the seeds are sprouting. 

Bed 3 with planting sections mulched

There's a patch of chard at the end on the third bed as well.  It's fun to see the seedlings beginning to emerge.