New England, April, 2019

"Apriluary" 1, 2019

Feels more like late February!

Thanks for opening April, RJ!  It was so nice to come here and see it started.

On lunch break today I raked off the debris from a couple of boxes, pulled some old seed packets out of the fridge, broadcast them in rows and then covered them with a light layer of compost.  Not SFG, and not sure it will work, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow so I felt like I needed to do SOMEthing.  Then I 'purposely' planted sugar snap peas, but not a package that I've had any success with.  Guess I'm just cleaning out the fridge at this point.

Broadcast seeds:
Baby Pak Choi
Dwarf Blue Curled Vates
Chioggia Beets
Chantenay Carrots
Georgia Green collards
French Dressing Radish
Cape Cod Collards
Red Winter kale
Mustard Spinach
Grand Rapids lettuce
Buttercrunch lettuce

Must have overlapped a bunch since I did all those in rows in one 6x3 ft box.  Actually, if I broadcast them in 6" rows each they'll be separate.  We'll see, IF they come up.  Just so glad to have done SOMEthing.

Ayuh...Cape Cod in April:

Starting some new SFG boxes this year in a community garden. Has anyone used the Green Mountain raised bed mix?  If so, did you add anything to it?

CapeCoddess wrote:Ayuh...Cape Cod in April:

It has been super cold and unfriendly until basically yesterday!  I have zero happening in my box, which I was proud to get out “on time”, lol, St. Patty’s day.

Hi, Pikagirl! Welcome to the Forum from California! The product that you mentioned has dirt in it so it will not be like Mel's Mix. Are you wanting to garden the SFG way?

Thanks for the welcome. 

I am looking to SFG and I was curious about that mix as it was what the guy at the local Agway recommended but I saw "silt"  listed and it didn't sound right to me. did buy a bag of Lobster compost because... well... lobster compost.  

My beds are going to take a little longer to build than I planned as my cordless drill die 3/4's of the way through building my beds.  

My HOA has a community garden and, last year, what I thought was a 5 x 19 plot turned out to be an 11 x 19 plot.

So I focused on one section, building a raised bed and loosely following  SFG guidelines figuring this year I can rebuild and do things right. I'm going to rebuild last year's beds in a better configuration after I finish cleaning out the parts I pretended didn't exist last year.

I cleaned out an 8x8 fenced in area and I'm building beds.  Because there is so much wild mint and raspberries (ghosts of gardeners past) I am laying down plywood as a base.

This is where I started  (before  clearing) 


Bonus, I found a large pair of Fiskars pruners under all that stuff!

This is where  I finished yesterday when my drill died:


I'm hoping to get in there later this week (weather's a little sketchy over the next couple of days) to finish the beds and then start on my mix. I only have some mushroom and lobster compost so far. Instead of the mix at the Agway, I'll pick up some cow and chicken manure and get a mix going.  

Next week is school vacation week, so I'm hoping to have everything in place before I go back.   One of my students said he wants me to blog about this.  We'll see.

Hi Pikagirl! Don't think I've welcomed you to our party yet.... So welcome from Atlanta, GA!

Lobster compost... Wish I could find some down here!

Looks like you've got a good plan. Looking forward to seeing what all you do.

Welcome, Pikagirl, forgive me for not being more attuned  to the fact that you are new here!!!  


You sound like you have a plan, and some experience.  That is great.  Also sounds like you have been doing intensive plantings...me too.  I have some beds that are not SFG per se, but I make it work.  We are open to all ideas!  


What are you growing?  Spring is here!

Been busy, getting busier. This was the computer room. Now it doesn't even have a computer. New seedlings popping up every day

Nice!

Hi Pikagirl!  Welcome to the forum!  There's always the ol' hammer and nails to finish up that box if you can't get a drill going.    

Good for you on those starts, Dan.  I usually have all kinds of babies going by now but not this year.  I seem to be skipping that step.    Guess I'll buy starts at the nurseries this since I have a gob of gift cards.

Keep those photos coming, folks...we love that!

CC

Pikagirl,  How are the beds coming?  Any up date photos?

Dan, I hope you have a lap top.  Moving a PC is a chore, even for green babies.

Some of the bigger seedlings will be going outdoors for the day, today for their first time ever, once it gets above 55 F. Suppose to be in the 70s today. I try to get my seedlings to harden off before they learn how to walk. Just me being a good plant parent. I also try and teach them that they were once wild things and should be dependent upon me as little as possible. This is just me being a gardener, I like taking credit for their growth, not so much the chores to get them there.

sanderson wrote:Pikagirl,  How are the beds coming?  Any up date photos?

Finished putting the boxes together and mixed everything up today.  I made a math error and need to make some more mix (I have about 3" and need 6").  I'll finish that up in the next day or so.    I also need to reconfigure last year's beds.  Looks like my school vacation week will be booked!  

It's true spring! At this time in 2018, it was like winter! It was bullplop on April 15, 2018 and April 16, 2018, IIRC!

RJARPCGP wrote:It's true spring! At this time in 2018, it was like winter! It was bullplop on April 15, 2018 and April 16, 2018, IIRC!

LOL!!!!  Here too!

Is it just me, or are the forsythias way behind?

So I had to rebuild my beds because the wood split when I used the 3" deck screws.  I bought the concrete corners and slid the boards in (after sawing off the ends because, with the added width of the corners, my boards were too long).  I drilled drainage holes into the plywood base - to prevent the stinking raspberries and wild mint from ghosts of gardeners past coming through - laid down a layer of weed block when the mint tried creeping in and then filled just over 6" of Mel's mix.

That's two 2'x8' beds and a 2' x 4' bed for 40 square feet of growing. 

Next weekend is cleaning up last year's bed, refreshing them with some compost and getting those going.  My one big question: is it easy to transplant my chives and garlic to the new beds so I can clean up the old ones?

 

You are doing a good job there! I had to transplant my garlic a week or so ago, and they were already bulbing and even cloving. The leaves are dying but there is still growth underneath. So, I think they would have done better if I had transplanted them earlier, while the roots were smaller and they hadn't started bulbing, much less cloving. The chives should do well. I hope this helps.

Pikagirl, my recommendation would be if you can leave the garlic where it is until harvest in July. You should get a better harvest and bigger bulbs than if you try to transplant them now. You need the entire root system that the bulbs have developed heading into the homestretch of Scapes and then Harvest Time.

Dan in Ct wrote:Pikagirl, my recommendation would be if you can leave the garlic where it is until harvest in July. You should get a better harvest and bigger bulbs than if you try to transplant them now. You need the entire root system that the bulbs have developed heading into the homestretch of Scapes and then Harvest Time.

I agree with Dan, unless you can lift the entire block of garlic and basically don’t mess with the bulb-ing, I would leave them be, only.  Chives are good to go until they flower, then you either have to cut the flowers off and move, or wait. 

I like your design!