The Modern Victory Garden

Another stunningly gorgeous day today.  High's got up to 65 and it was definitely t-shirt weather.   Spent late morning into early afternoon constructing the retaining wall bed in the back area of the older section of garden.  This is the very sloped area where I grew my pumpkins and acorn squash last year.   With the addition of a retaining wall style bed structure - the area will be leveled out and produce far more useable garden space.   The bed measures approximately 6'x12' and will require a walkway down the center of it due to the width.    I plan to place wide boards down the center for that purpose.   Got all the timbers cut and laid out in place so that they are level and plumb. At the backmost portion of the bed the timbers are stacked four high.  These are heavy timbers so that was quite a bit of physical work.  I stopped working once the lumber was all cut and set into place because 1)  I was getting tired and wanted to clean up, and 2) I wanted to relax and enjoy the sunny afternoon!  I need to anchor all the timbers and then fill in the bed with compost and soil mix to finish this project up.   I may be able to get this finished next Saturday but it is Easter weekend and we have some plans that will make garden time very limited.    Planning to plant some corn in this bed this year.  

Moved the remaining tomato seedlings out of the shop and into the sunshine this afternoon.   This begins their hardening off process.   Not in any big rush though as it is likely going to be April 18th (at the soonest) that I get these into the garden.   The weather has just been too unpredictable this year and I still have to double dig the bed where the tomatoes will go yet (one of the new ones in the garden expansion project).

Watered the pea patch seedbed this afternoon to ensure it does not dry out too much in the warmer weather we are experiencing.  Have at least two more days of warm and sunshine in the forecast. The peas are poked through now and should get a great foothold during the next two days.

Harvested some lettuces and swiss chard leaves for tonight's dinner.   We are getting almost daily salads now from the overwintered spinach patch, the overwintered swiss chard, and the many succession plantings of lettuces (many varieties) that are growing in containers in the greenhouse.  

Those of you who subscribe to Garden Girl's Urban Sustainable Living Ezine will find an article in the April edition (released today) on double digging submitted by me at the request of the Garden Girl herself - Patti Moreno.   The article is basically an abbreviated version of the "How I Do It" page on Double Digging located here on this site.   If you are not a subscriber, Patti posts the prior month Ezine on her website after she releases the newest one.  My garden friend Sinfonian is a regular contributor and also has an article on rain barrels in the April edition. 

Busy and productive weekend.   Went by way too fast.   So much work yet to be done to get the new beds prepped for planting and next weekend will likely be tied up with family obligations for the most part.  Things always have a way of getting done just in the nick of time, so I am not going to stress about it.  

Hope you enjoyed some time in the garden this weekend too.