End of March

This is it - the last day of March. Thank god. I'm hoping April turns out to be as "not like March" as possible.

It's 37 degrees Farenheit and raining - it was sleeting earlier, so we're making progress at least. I took Kiholo for a walk at the park, and about a half hour in she just turned and went back to the car. I'm not sure she's ever done that before, but she had had enough, apparently.

Here's a picture of the garden from today - I've played with the contrast & saturation a bit because everything is so washed out looking around here these days. The garden itself (within the fenced area) is a little small - I think it's about 144 square feet. You can see one raised planter near a chair and a birdfeeder - that's mainly for flowers, and was here when we moved in. There is another raised planter in front of the garden "proper" (the area enclosed by the falling down fence) - I've already planted half of that raised bed with lettuce & arugula. Last year I had beets & carrots in there & they did very well.


The wood pile in the background isn't mine - I wish it were, or, rather, I wish I had a need for a wood pile, but I don't. THE house will have a woodstove. We spent about $2000 on oil this winter, and I'd like to avoid that in the future.

I don't know if you can make it out, but in the middle of the garden "proper" there is a black tarp looking thing. Under that is a pile of leaves & compostable stuff. The black tarp is actually leftover landscape fabric, which lets water and air through, and absorbs the heat nicely. I know it wont fully decompose within the next few weeks, but some of it might, and I'll move the rest before I put the rest of the garden in.

The green stuff you can see in the garden is a mix of garlic & chive coming up, as well as winter rye that I planted last fall as a cover crop. That seems to have more or less worked - the areas with the winter rye thawed first, and there are already all sort of bugs crawling around in the soil in that area. The garden is also not as soggy as it has been in years past, but our thaw seems to have come early this year.

There is a similar situation going on to the left of the garden (as in the picture - just on the edge). I wish I had thought to put the landscape fabric on last fall. It's really pretty warm under both of these piles, so all might not be lost. We'll be putting a raised bed in on top of this pile later this spring, parallel to the garden fence.

We'll also be putting a raised bed in front of the garden, to the left of the gate. Larger than it's "twin" to the right of the gate.

Our neighbor has 2 goats, and we'll be getting their manure in a few weeks, and adding it throughout the summer as it becomes available. This should help the soil out a bit.

In the bottom right corner, you can just make out some snow. We still have a bit of snow in the shady part of our yard. Maybe it'll all melt this week.