New Year, New Plot

We received a call from garden plot giver outer who told us we could have a bigger plot since our name came up on the list and we had no weed violations on our current plot. We jumped at the chance to get a beautiful, full sun plot right by the water trough.

The down side to moving was that we had perennials that should flourish this year-thornless blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. For winter gardening, we had also built cold frames. One was pretty well picked out so we emptied it an moved it. The other had beautiful lettuces that weren't quite ready. When we were deciding to leave it for the new occupants or dig out our lettuce, we realized we had put heavy wire mesh on the bottom to keep out the voles. So, we carefully picked up the cold frame, lettuce and all and positioned it in our new plot. The lettuce is ready and we are going to have a big salad tonight.

Once we got the plants moved, we did some digging,(I say we meaning, my husband who does all the heavy lifting.) weeding and covered the plot with leaf mulch to keep new weeds at bay. The previous owners left strawberries for us and we combined some in our frame and left the rest where they were. I planted phlox at the entrance to make our plot look cheery. I love Phlox and we have a shade garden at home so I jumped at the chance to grow it at the plot. We purchased some tomatoes and planted them and also have some seeds in the ground. If the seeds work, great, if not, we have the plants as a back up.

Our grandson was given watermelon seeds and he planted them in little pots in the house. Then we moved those to the plot. He said he has a vision of bringing a big watermelon over to share with his friends in our neighborhood.

Other seeds we planted are sunflowers, beets, spinach, chard, leeks, basil, peas, beans and sweat peas. I am really more interested in flowers than food but it is great to eat something you grow.

I'll post pictures next time.

No Weed Violations!

Yesterday, my daughter, Liz, told me we could get on a list for a larger plot in the future, but we have to have a year with no weed violations. There is a certain tolerance for weeds in the garden plots. This is 100% organic gardening so there are bound to be the odd weed or two. What Liz meant is that when the weed police come around, the whole garden plot can't be full of weeds. Guess who sends out the weed violation notices? Yes, that's one of Liz's many job duties.

I wish I had a newer picture to share. We have completely mulched our garden with organic leaf mulch and it looks beautiful. I did weed yesterday morning and had a small handful of weeds.

We do have one small area that may have weeds but it's too early to tell. I direct sowed some Foxglove, Poppies and Daisies. The first two have micro seeds which means initial growth is also micro. Since they are so small, I am not sure yet what is weed and what is successful germination, so I am leaving them alone until they get the 2nd or 3rd set of leaves. Then I will be able to identify the flowers vs weeds. I've never really direct sown in regular garden soil. I've always dug out a trench and filled it with store bought good quality potting mix. It's usually finer than regular dirt very distinctive. I always did this so that I would know where my seedlings were. We have decided to embrace the organic way and see what happens. I just hope I can figure out what are flowers and what are weeds before the weed police arrive!