1) We planted garlic in the fall, which "should" give us a nice big heads of garlic.
2) In October, we dug a second bed -- The middle row in the picture.
3) In February, we dug a third bed -- The right row in the picture.
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| February 19th, 2012 |
The idea behind rows like this is that you want to make the paths permanent, so that you never have to step into the bed, which compacts the soil, making it a lot harder for the vegetables to spread out their roots and find more nutrients.
First, I created a path in between the left (original) bed and the fence. It was really nice growing the peas and pole beans along the fence, but once everything grew in, it was really hard to walk around on that side without crushing things or breaking things. Additionally, I was compacting and wasting all of that good soil.
Rather than permentnly wasting the good soil, I dug it up to the clay (about a foot deep), and used that dirt to raise the middle bed. I also emptied our composter (about 8 months worth) and used that on the top of the bed. I read that by building the bed in the fall, and especially adding the compost, you are making the bed a place the worms want to be. The worms gravitate towards the bed, and spend all winter working on the soil.
By February when I dug the third bed, I could see a huge difference in the middle bed. It was much softer, darker soil, and there were tons of worms everywhere.
The third bed was a mid winter idea, spawned from the possibility of trying to grow sweet potatoes. The sweet potato slips will come in May, so until then, we are going to try and plant spinach in that bed.
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