Cleaning up the garden

What a mess. While I wasn't paying attention, grass began growing in the greenhouse beds and it was a foot tall or more in places, indicating that I could have planted spinach, lettuce and other early spring crops several weeks ago. Oops.

The grass was probably oats or wheat from the seeds left in last year's mulch hay. The mulch itself was pretty much reduced to nothing: eaten by the garden as Ruth Stout would say. Anyhow, I dug up the greenhouse beds with a spading fork and sifted out as much of the grass as I could. Took about an hour all together.

Next I relocated two of my outdoor beds. Last year I made these of 2x6 redwood. They are just simple boxes, 4 feet by 8, held together with lag screws. I tilled up the garden last spring and then heaped up the tilled soil in mounds where I wanted to locate the beds. I set the boxes on the ground in likely spots and then cleared the garden soil from the pathways between the beds, pitching it into the boxes. I used rocks to make the boxes more or less level, raked out the soil and planted.

The boxes worked pretty well except that I should have set them out so that the long demension was perpendicular to the prevailing wind because the wind simply roared through the remay tunnels. True, the seedlings were protected from frost, but the front end gain on my growing season was limited by the wind that withered the plants repeatedly. This year I am re-arranging the garden so the boxes are perpendicular to the wind.

It was pretty easy to just lift up the frames and carry them off to the side. The wood frames, having weathered the winter, are much lighter and dryer than they were last spring. Had I realized this, I would have allowed more time to pull up all the frames, scrub them down and give them a good soaking with lindseed oil before working up the beds. Definitely this is something to put on the agenda for next year. Unfortunately, there is not time this year.

The good news however, is that the boxes are in very good condition, and other than surface weathering, they are sturdy and free from rot and insect damage.

Last year I just about hit the limit for the amount of garden space I can reasonably manage, so this is the first year that I wont be expanding the total area that I am cultivating for vegetables. I learned a few things about efficiency last year and am making some changes for this season that should allow me to get more vegetables with a bit less time and effort than last year.

Some things that I will do differently this year:

Changing the orientation of the beds will not only make it easier to protect them from the wind, but also make it easier to drag the hose around the garden.

Relocating several of the beds will allow me to have 3 foot wide pathways along the long dimension of the beds. Two foot wide paths just aren't wide enough for the wheel barrow and the wagon.

Building an additonal "lift" under the sills of the greenhouse. It would be nice if I could raise the greenhouse up another 3-1/2 inches so I don't bump my head on the roof so much. I can construct an "elevated sill" box of 2x4 redwood and slip it between the sill and the bottom plates. I should be able to do this by lifting the north end of the greenhouse with a pair of crow bars and tucking blocking underneath, then repeating the step on the other end. Then I can roll the sill extention under the sides, tap them into final position and finally, place the end sills in place, screw everything together with deck screws and voila, no more scraping the hide off my skull!

More tomorrow