Garden 1

After mulching over the raised beds in Garden 1 over the Winter, and using the mini-greenhouses to start seedlings in good soil, and after some progress of growth after transplanting, sadly many of the plants just haven’t made it.

I’m thinking a couple of things:

  1. I should have planted only one plant per greenhouse and then let them grow much bigger before transplanting.
  2. Planting in newly-laid mulch is probably not the best place to plant — it probably needs to sit at least a year to compress down and help prepare the soil beneath. I thought having the plants in good garden bed soil when transplanted would be enough, but I’m thinking probably not.

But, we always pray for God’s guidance and help and direction to learn. And, there are still some things growing, mostly in the mulch laid down some time before the last section, which sort of helps support point #2 above:

Winter Vegetables

Here are a couple of cabbages getting by:

Cabbage

And one of the beets:

Beet

And the peas are doing the best. It’s nice to have some fresh for a nightly salad!

Peas

Finally, I was able to almost finish laying that thick first layer over where the raised beds used to be:

Finished Full Mulch of Garden 1

Garden 2

I mentioned in our last garden update that I was re-mulching Garden 2. While doing so, and chopping the weeds, we have found turnips along the way that have grown from seeds I planted or scattered several years ago. Here’s a whopper we came across!

Large Winter-Grown Turnip

Same Large Winter-Grown Turnip

And so, I figured it might be a good idea to just throw down a bunch of turnip seeds with the hopes they just come up over the years:

Turnip Seeds

And after about four and a half mulch loads, I was able to finish re-mulching Garden 2, and then I scattered about a pound of the seeds all over. It will be interesting to see what happens over the years, if the Lord wills!

Re-mulching of Garden 2 Complete

Other than what’s already planted, I’m thinking this year is going to be more of a building year, mostly doing prep work, laying mulch, etc.

We are always thankful to the Lord for any bit of provision He grants, and for the opportunity to continue to learn how to go about these agrarian ways, and we pray for His guidance and direction, in all things, both temporal and spiritual.

— David