It's finally gorgeous out and that means getting things done outside. As you may remember from my last post, I had installed garden boxes in my front yard, filled two of them with dirt and put strawberries in them. This weekend, I completed phase 2. I had 2 yards of a compost/top soil mix dropped on my front yard lawn in the area where I grow my flowers. I wheel barreled most of the dirt into my garden boxes up front, into my established garden beds in the back yard and also right along side my strawberry and raspberry plants. I left a good foundation of the dirt on the flower area.
Speaking of my strawberries and raspberries that I put in a few weeks ago. Already we are seeing some really encouraging growth.
 |
| Strawberries |
 |
| Red Raspberry |
 |
| Black Raspberry |
All of the green leafy growth on these canes are new and I take that to mean good things. Mainly that the roots are becoming established, they are getting a decent amount of nutrients and water and that their sunlight is adequate. Again, having never grown fruit before, this is all an adventure for me.
Let's go back to the flower area where I left spread out compost. Big things happened in that area. My wife, children and I went on Mothers Day morning and picked out a few flats worth of flowers to make use of the space. Have a look for yourself.
My wife put many of the extra flowers into pots and hanging baskets while I put the flowers in the flower bed. And even deeper than what you can see here, I went along in between the rows of established flowers and sprinkled flower seeds. The thought process here is that as the established flowers start to wear off and die down, these seeds will just be rising up and will take their place, ensuring a continual bloom throughout the garden year. I'm not sure if they will take but I know that with the excellent soil I just put them in, they have about as good as a chance as any seeds out there do.
And just for fun, let's check in on other happenings around the garden including the community garden where garden members and I just planted in some apple trees for future years enjoyment.
 |
| Onions |
 |
| The pea bed |
 |
| Onions and Radishes |
 |
| Garlic on the left, potatoes on the right. |
 |
| Garlic |
 |
| Artsy shot of my brassica bed including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussels sprouts. |
 |
| Apple tree planters hard at work. |
 |
| Massive amounts of wood chips, most available because of the ice storm and the debris left behind |
So there it is! Busy things happening. I still want to get my two front garden boxes seeded. I'm looking at doing some corn, pole beans (to grow up the corn once it is established), and some squash/zucchini. We are sitting on the edge of the warm crop planting season and I can't wait! That is when things really get moving. I'm sure my next update will be highlighting what warm weather crops (corn, tomatoes, beans, etc) that I have put in the ground.
Until then. Garden on, Wayne. Garden on, Garth.
