Bibb lettuce

The bibb lettuce started from seed directly in the garden are doing well at 3 weeks. The bibb lettuce I started in pots in mid-March and transplanted are not doing well.

First spring peas

These are snap peas at about 3 weeks.

The vegetable garden was started April 5th.

Strawberries mulched with pine needles

These strawberries have been mulched with pine needles to lower the pH of the soil. Because the plants are already established and its close to fruiting time, it was too late to amend the soil directly.

Survival

The garden survived our week away. The peas have sprouted and are going strong. There bibb lettuce, mesclun and mache are all showing great promise. There are even some chard and carrot sprouts starting to poke their way through. Nothing yet from the parsley or cilantro in the herb beds.
As if the chipmunks, bunnies and squirrels aren't enough to content with we now have wild turkeys as well! The bunnies are easy to scare away and Lucky does a good job of keeping watch. The chipmunks are a little cheeky, but even they will run when chased by a large grumbling animals (me). The turkeys, however, are terrifying. They're huge, and they just look at you. I am afraid of the turkeys.
Temperatures have been very warm - it's been in the low 90s for a few days. The leaves on the large trees are starting to come out.
As it stands now, the central and western beds get full sun from aboutb 9-5, with some additional dappled sun in the early morning and evening. The eastern bed gets full sun from about 11:30-5:30, but that big oak hasn't set its leaves yet.
On 4/26/09, I started some additional seeds in pots in doors. Despite the hot temps, we are still (technically) in frost territory. I started 2 pots each of Persian Cucumbers, Asian Cucumbers, French Beans, Kentucky Beans, Parsley and Basil.
The strawberries are looking perky and green. I mulched them with pine needles to up the acid content of the soil.

Chard seeds

Swiss chard went in today. Soaked the seeds for about 2 hours first.

The Soil test results

The soil test results came back from the lab. That was fast!! Only took about 2 weeks. So, this soil sample is our existing dirt, prior to any amendment. The soil itself is pretty clay-y. It dries to a dark gray dust. It seems to be totally devoid of organic material, but there are loads of worms, so it can't be all bad.

So, as my little pH tester wand said, the soil is close to 7, which is officially "neutral", but really too alkaline for berries and borderline too alkaline for vegetables. The compost we will add to the vegetable beds should take care of the alkalinity there, since the compost is close to a pH of 6. For the strawberries and raspberries, I will mulch with pine needles from the back 40 and work on amending the soil further at the end of the season.

The tests also show that we are low on nitrogen and phosphorus. This makes sense since our problems last year were yellowing foliage and lack of much fruit. The low nitrogen would cause the yellowing foliage and the low phosphorus causes weak plants and poor fruit. I'm hoping the compost will add sufficient nitrogen and phosphorus, but I will add bone mean (phosphorus) just to be sure.

Decent amounts of potassium and plenty of calcium, as well as low lead levels.

Planting out the first seedling

The hardening off of the seedling did not go so well. It got into the low 30s while they were outside, and it looks like several of the bibb lettuce seedling died.

Today, we planted the seedlings from our paper pots. Peas, Leeks, Bibb, Mache, Mesclun mix and chard. Temperatures have been in the upper 50s during the day, but in the low 30s at night. Still, we have to get them planted out since we won't be around to water the seedlings for a week. Hopefully, some good April showers will take care of everything outside.

I also put in leek seeds. Not sure how this will go. The seed packet recommends starting them indoors 12 weeks before the last frost. Hmmmmm.....

Boston vegetable garden

Direct sowed the first seeds on April 5th:

Snap peas, Meslun, Bibb Lettuce, Mache

I planted TONS of seeds in several rows, rather than use the hyper dense, square foot method. I planted about 4 times as many seeds as I want plants, since many did not germinate in my indoor starts.

Covered the lettuces with plastic to keep the ground extra-warm for the first week - it's been cold at night again, with daytime temps only in the low 40s.

Erected a teepee structure for the peas using found wood from the back 40. Buried them about 6" deep and tied together at the top. We'll see if it survives the wind.

We also emptied the compost. All those leaves, and gallons of food scraps rots down to just one small pile of compost. Still, it looks good - rich and dark, but there are still lots of bits of undigested food and straw. We piled the mostly-done compost in the eastern bed which won't be planted for another month and covered it with black plastic. We plan to turn it every-other day to keep it well-aerated and moist. We hope that it will finish decomposing in the warm weather in the next month and we can screen it and use it.

Seedlings

After 2.5 weeks, everything is showing some signs of life. The bibb lettuce sprouted right away, followed by the mescun, peas, mache, chard and finally the leeks. I'm surprised at how many seeds do not germinate. I think you have to plant about 4 seeds to get 1 good plant.

Temperatures have been between 35-60 in the sun room. I think the cold days may have inhibited the leeks from germinating.

So far all in costs are about $70 (4 bags spaghum moss, 5 bags composted manure, seeds, 1 pH meter, 1 roll clear plastic sheeting).

I'm hoping to use our very own compost for the rest of the soil amendment. The pH on the compost is reading between 6 and 6.5 which is ideal for most vegetables. I have no way to test the nutrient content, but I can only imagine there's some good nitrogen in there since we've been dumping in plenty of kitchen scraps.