Box 1 is planted

I ran out of compost and I am exhausted so I decided to hold off on box two (the deeper box) until next week.

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South is up, North is down in this picture.

I have Brussles sprouts in the two bottom corners (one per square). Snap peas in the two middle bottom corners (I did 5 per square because it seemed more balanced to me). The four middle squares have broccoli raab seeds. The two outside squares of row two (from the bottom) are spinach, and the two outer rows in row three are a head lettuce (sylvestra). The upper four boxes is a gourmet mix of leaf lettuces.

I was afraid of birds eating my seeds so I did the pvc pipe dome and threw some plastic over it. But it was windy so the plastic is not staying put. I took this picture before putting the plastic on. I have it covered and with bricks holding it down, but I didn't cut it evenly so there are some gaps. I think it is good enough to keep the birds out, not quite good enough for a green house.
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North is up south is down in this picture.

I ended up using two bags (buckets) of a blended compost I found at Home Depot and 1 bucket of the manure/wood chip compost that we have access to. I was a little concerned about using too much of the "free" stuff because I saw some sprouts in it as I was shoveling it. There were only about 4 and I picked them all out, and kept checking as I was mixing so I am pretty certain I got them all. I guess only time will tell.

What a good looking garden you have going.

As far as your sugar snap peas, did you know you could plant 8 seeds per square? I do mine in a double row of four within the square. Most of us are looking for as much produce out of a square as possible, without crowding the plants.

The placement of your other veggies sounds great, tall plants to the north and shorter plants to the south.

Building and filling your boxes, plus adding the supports for your plastic or netting is a lot of work. I just filled a box today so I can sympathize.

Have you decided what type of trellis you will use for your peas? Most varieties of sugar snaps are vining type plants. You may have described your trellis in another thread, but I don't remember.

Congratulations on what you have accompished today. Take a break, relax and start checking for sprouts soon.

Thanks. I bought a tomato trellis thing from Lowes today that I considered using for the peas. I didn't get a good look at it, but I think it folds out into a triangle to create a cage. I was going to build a trellis but I have run out of resources--and energy, and these cages were only $7. I also have some wire tomato cages in the shed that I might use.

I did see that I could do 8 per square but I didn't think of 2 rows of four. I couldn't think of a nicely balanced way of doing it (for some reason I kept picturing 3 x 3 not even thinking of 2 x 4 ), so I did five, four corners and a middle. Maybe I will add a few more in each box.

Tomato cages for the peas....great idea! I just planted peas today but don't have the cattle panel up. Besides they are Dwarf grey sugar and only SUPPOSED to get about 36 inches. I have several old tomato cages I can put to use!
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I also use them around plant I don't want the DH to mow down lol...he mows down new trees when they have a ring around them even! But a wire cage he wont! I have them around rhubarb that I have in the middle of the yard. rofl...and I have lived here since 1996! But I pick from the big bed and we piece on the little ones!

Tomato cages are great for brussel sprouts and broccoli also!

CindiLou wrote:I also use them around plant I don't want the DH to mow down lol...he mows down new trees when they have a ring around them even!

I have a Great Mower in the house as well! I have lost day lilies and hollyhocks to his thoroughness!

TC

So box two is filled, well, part way at least. I went to a garden center up the block and the guy sold me 2 bags of blended composts. 1 is a manure and humus blend, the other is a blend of manure, grass, leaves. Both contain manure from cows, chickens, and horses. So I think I am pretty safe with the 5 kinds, however, he told me that they are expecting an order of seaweed compost which has had rave reviews by many of his customers.

I was eager to get my box started so I mixed what I had and filled my boxes 1/3 of the way. This is a taller box (12") for carrots, potatoes, onions and any other root vegetable that tickles my fancy. And it is a 3x3.

Would it be an problem to mix a second batch if MM using just the seaweed compost and then blending it in with the existing MM that I have already filled the box with? I guess I should mention that I already planted some potatoes since I had a bag of Idahoes that have long since past any side dish usefulness.

As for box 1, no sprouts spotted as of yet. It has been 1 week, and I expected to see a little something, but it has been a cold week. Lows in the mid 30s and highs in the low 50s, so I will give it some more time before I start to pout.

Creating your new MM with just the seaweed compost and then mixing it into your already made MM would make you a little heavy on the seaweed compost compared to the other composts.

Since you still have 2/3 of the box to fill, I would suggest that you use the seaweed compost as 1/2 of the compost for your new mix. Add at least two more types of compost to the new MM then blend the older MM with the new MM. You don't want to depend too heavily on any one type of compost.

Oh, I made a mistake, I meant that I filled it 2/3 and only had 1/3 left to go, but I think I will use more than just the seaweed compost. Thanks for your input.