A Garden? Me?

I have sworn off gardening on more than one occasion.  It's a lot of work and I'm not very good at it so my results aren't always terrific.  However, given the circumstances of the times we find ourselves in I feel it would be prudent to put in a garden this year and a much bigger one than we've done in the past.  We don't have a very big yard so this is going to add to the challenge I already face, but I'm willing to put in the effort and am hopeful for good results.

Last week I ordered and received twelve strawberry plant starts.  I have always wanted a strawberry patch and have put one in before, however my demented squirrels pulled up the plants and that took care of that.  This year I'm putting in another one and will be putting up barrier mesh to keep the squirrels out of it.  So far I have turned the soil and added some of our homemade compost to the raised bed I am planning to use.

This bed will be a nice sized addition to our garden

I used heat treated pallet wood so it is safe for garden beds

To begin the add-on of our garden area I took up some pavers in the backyard and with Jack's assistance and good company I built a new raised garden bed.  I have a lot of wood that I've dragged home from the FREE WOOD bin as well as leftover from other projects.  I used heat treated 2"X 4"s and long screws I had in the garage to but it together.  I then added some cardboard from boxes we had to line the bottom of the bed.  This will provide a nice weed barrier, initially, and then as it breaks down it promotes earthworms to take up residence.  I will be adding dirt and some of our homemade compost to this bed.

Jack checked it out and gave it his seal of approval

I mixed up old potting soil I had in flower pots with some of our homemade compost to use to fill seed pots I had out in the garage.  I have a lot of seeds that I've collected in the last few years as well as some new ones I picked up at the feed store last week.  I planted six pots of tomato seeds, summer squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, bell peppers and jalapeno peppers.  I set the pots onto foam meat trays I pulled out of our recycle bin and washed up with soap and water.  Then I set the trays of seed pots on top of our dryer in the laundry room to sit and germinate.  Lastly I added our clamp lamp to the shelf so it shines onto the pots offering light and some heat.  Now we wait to see what happens.

Tomatoes & peppers

Every day I plan to do something to make preparations and amend the soil to prepare for planting and to expand our garden space.  I should have plenty of time to get everything done in time for planting.  I usually start planting the weekend of Mother's Day so that gives me just over a month to get ready.  As long as I can get everything planted by Memorial Day I will be pretty happy.